Post News Network
Puri, Feb 7: Town police Saturday recovered three human skulls from an abandoned building near the North Gate of Jagannath temple here.
A youth spotted the skulls and informed a few shopkeepers in the locality, according to police.
On being informed, officials of Singhdwar and Town police reached the spot and began an investigation.
The incident has created shockwaves in the district. Ramchandi police had seized 21 human skulls from a bridge over Kushbhadra river in the district November 22.
The house was used as a granary by authorities of a mutt 50 years ago, according to sources, but was subsequently unused.
Mutt pontiff Ramanuj Das claimed that the house had been sold to an individual in the early ’90s and he had no idea about the skulls.
Residents of the area suspect that a few labourers might have died in the building when it was used as a granary.
Other residents fear that the some people might have been killed by miscreants who then dumped the bodies in the building. The residents have demanded a thorough investigation.
A few city-based intellectuals alleged that police did not search the abandoned building properly.
“Residents of the area collected the skulls and kept them outside the building. Police just seized the skulls. They did not search the building at all. We suspect that a few persons might have been killed over mutt land dispute and their bodies were disposed of in the building,” said social activist Dillip Baral.
However, town police in-charge Dayanidhi Nayak said, “A person practising sorcery might have dumped the skulls in the abandoned building. We can draw conclusions only after examining the skulls.”
Residents of the area have also raised objections to the casual nature of police investigation.
They have alleged that a police official smashed one of the seized skulls before sending them for laboratory examination.
