Kendrapara: Kendrapara Town police Friday detained a Junior Engineer (JE) in connection with the suspicious death of a young woman as part of an ongoing investigation, police said.
The detained JE has been identified as Sudhanshu Sekhar Behera. According to IIC Dillip Kumar Sahoo, the deceased Pratikhya Nayak, a resident of Taras village under Rajkanika police limits, had been working as an ad-hoc employee under the Swachh Bharat Mission at the Kendrapara Municipality office for about two years and six months.
She resigned from her job in April 2025 to prepare for the BEd examination and was residing in a rented house.
Thursday, family members found her body hanging from a ceiling fan in her rented accommodation.
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While the incident was initially suspected to be a case of suicide, the victim’s father, Bhimasen Nayak, lodged an FIR at Kendrapara Town PS alleging that his daughter had been raped and later murdered.
Following the FIR, police rushed to the spot, seized the body, and sent it to the District Headquarters Hospital for a post-mortem.
A case has been registered under Sections 64 (rape) and 103 (murder) of the BNS. Police have seized call detail records and are conducting a thorough inquiry.
