Khandapara: A day after four persons were brutally killed in Balasore district, miscreants killed an unknown woman in a similar fashion and later tried to burn the body to destroy evidence in a Mahanadi river islet adjoining Kantilo- Patharchakada PWD road under Fategarh police limits in Nayagarh district late Saturday night.
The matter came to light after locals noticed the half-burnt body of the woman and informed police.
Fategarh police accompanied by Kantilo outpost police rushed to the spot and recovered the half-burnt body.
The body was sent for post-mortem to Khandapara community health centre while a forensic team and sniffer dogs were pressed into service to unravel the mystery behind the killing.
Police suspected the victim was an outsider as it failed to trace her identity despite making an inquiry about her in the area. A case was registered in this connection as IIC Ashutosh Mishra assured to crack the murder mystery and arrest the culprits at the earliest. On being directed by SP K Vishal Singh, the additional SP, Bhapur tehsildar also rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation
The incident has spread shockwaves in the area as hundreds of residents rushed to the spot after reports surfaced. Preliminary inquiries suggested that the woman from a middle class background and in her late 20s was raped before being killed in a most heinous manner along with her minor child.
Police, however, failed to trace the body of the kid except recovering a pair of socks, a feeding bottle, diapers, a towel, a mosquito net, a knife, hammer, empty liquor bottles and soiled glasses from the spot.It is suspected that miscreants tried to burn the body to destroy evidence but later dumped it at the site before fleeing.
The woman was wearing a salwar-kameej with her dress torn from the right which is indicative of rape before murder. Moreover, blood stains on her head indicated that she scuffled with her killers before her death. Her broken bangles, child’s diapers, feeding bottle, socks were found lying strewn all over the river embankment. PNN