Udala: A crucial breakthrough has emerged in a two-and-a-half-year-old murder investigation after a man identified a pair of slippers belonging to his missing father, helping police and Crime Branch investigators establish a possible link to an unidentified body recovered in 2023.
The development came Wednesday night at Udala police station when Bishwanath Singh, a resident of Sukhuasahi village who works in Kerala approached police in search of his father, Yubaraj Singh. According to police, Bishwanath returned to his native village in October 2025 to perform the post-funeral rites of his elderly mother, Suni Singh. After reaching home, he found that his father was not there. His elder brother, Raghunath Singh, informed him that Yubaraj had gone missing nearly two years earlier.
After searching for him unsuccessfully for several months, Bishwanath approached police, who informed him about an unidentified male body recovered from a well in a cashew plantation near Sureisahi village November 8, 2023. Investigators then showed him a pair of slippers recovered from the scene, which he identified as his father’s.
Police said the victim’s hands and legs had been tied before the body was placed in sacks weighted with stones and dumped into the well, indicating premeditated murder. A Crime Branch team has collected Bishwanath’s blood samples for DNA testing to establish the victim’s identity conclusively.
Bishwanath has alleged that three to four individuals from a neighbouring village may have killed his father over suspicion of witchcraft. He claimed the suspects had previously threatened Yubaraj following a dispute. Police said the case could be solved once the DNA report is received and verified.
