Kuchinda/Sambalpur: In a gruesome murder, miscreants killed a woman late Tuesday night in Baksama village of Kuchinda sub-division in Sambalpur district by slitting her throat with sharp-edged weapons.
The deceased was identified as Padmabati Behera (45), wife of Kishore Behera of the village.
Police reached the spot Wednesday afternoon and recovered the body. Though a police team comprising Kuchinda IIC Shivprasad Biswal and SDPO Ramprasad Sahoo began a probe with the help of forensic experts and sniffer dogs, they are yet to get any lead on the incident, it was learnt. The dog roamed around the village and finally stopped at a nearby pond before coming back, police said.
Meanwhile, tension mounted in the village over the brutal murder of the woman, who was alone at home during the incident. Her husband works in a pipe manufacturing company in Koraput while her son and daughter live in Bangalore and Rourkela respectively. The girl is undergoing nursing training course there, it added.
Based on the complaint of Bhaktaram Behera, one of her relatives, police registered a case. The mystery behind the death would be cracked once the post-mortem report is received, IIC Biswal said.
Despite the absence of her family members, Padmabati started her house construction a few days ago. People who came Wednesday for construction works discovered Padmabati lying in a pool of blood on a charpoi at her backyard. They alerted villagers and the latter informed police. Multiple injuries on Padmabati’s body indicate that she had a fight with her assailants before she was killed, police officials said.
Villagers said she used to sleep on a cot in the open at the backyard of her under-construction house which made the miscreants’ task easier.
However, none of her kin turned up to lodge a written complaint with police. Finally, police seized the body on the case filed by a distant relative and sent it to Kuchinda sub-divisional hospital for post-mortem.
The case posed a serious challenge for police, villagers said. PNN