Bhubaneswar: At a time when the Jharaphula death case is still fresh in people’s mind, recovery of a woman’s headless body from Andharua Daspur roadside under Chandaka police limits here Thursday has posed a challenge for the police.
Since the identity of the deceased is vital for the police to proceed with their investigation, the miscreants had beheaded the body with an intention to do away with the proof, it is believed.
Despite searching in an area of five kilometres radius from the spot even with the help of sniffer dogs, the police failed to find out the head of the deceased.
The police have suspected involvement of more than one miscreants in the case. The police are sure of the fact that the miscreants beheaded the body with an intention to elongate the investigation process so that they can have time to eliminate proof and go underground.
According to a source in the police, a knife was recovered from the spot but it does not seem that the knife was used in the crime as it did not have many bloodstains on it. The miscreants are believed to have used a sharp weapon like a billhook in the crime. Taking all these into account, the police have intensified their investigation.
Since Bhubaneswar police don’t have trained sniffer dogs, a sniffer dog was brought from Jagatsinghpur. The police had to wait for four hours even though they had completed the investigation while waiting for the arrival of the sniffer dog. After smelling the knife and blood-stained gloves recovered from the spot, the dog went to a biotech park, which is 500 metres away. The dog stopped at a water tank. The police suspected the miscreants might have come to this tank to wash their blood-stained hands. Notably, the park has CCTV cameras everywhere except for the area near the water tank.
The forensic team have collected some samples from the deceased’s private parts and dress to find out if she had been raped. This apart, as the hair of the deceased was not available for the DNA test, the team collected blood and bone samples for DNA test, it was learnt.
According to a police officer privy to the investigation, they have issues in gathering information about the deceased as no missing report has been lodged at nearby police stations. In such a situation, the police are trying to establish the identity of the woman from a tattoo on her right elbow and fingerprints. Once her fingerprints are matched with aadhar card, it will not take much time for the police to ascertain her identity, the police source said.