Cuttack: A special police team has been formed to identify and trace the killers in the wake of three murders in the city in a span of 24 hours, an officer said Friday.
Two police inspectors and 11 constables are in the team, city DCP Akhileswar Singh said.
The victims, all men, were aged over 40 years and found on the roadside, he said. The first body was recovered from Ranihat Bridge on Tuesday morning. Two bodies, one from near SCB Medical College and another from neighbouring OMP market, were recovered Wednesday morning.
The throats of all the three bodies were slit and their heads were found to be smashed with a heavy object, he said.
The mutilated bodies and untraced killers have sparked rumours of the involvement of a suspected ‘stoneman’ behind the murders. The police have stepped up night patrolling and the homeless are being told to sleep at shelter homes, Singh added.
The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police also plans to take several steps to help prevent more such murders. As many as five platoons of police have been deployed to step up patrolling and create awareness, Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty had said Thursday.
“We plan to take a few more initiatives like spreading awareness about the dangers of sleeping in the open,” he said. The Government Railway Police (GRP) has been alerted to remain vigilant as many sleep in the open in station areas.
Two persons were found to have been killed June 28 in the same manner in Paradip, 60 km from here. Nine persons were killed by a suspected ‘stoneman’ in Berhampur in 1998. In all the incidents, including the recent one, the victims and their killers were unidentified.
(PTI)