Saintala: Police Tuesday exhumed the body of man from an abandoned well who was allegedly beaten to death by his elder brother following a brawl at Bagmara under this block in Bolangir district, police said Wednesday.
In the presence of magistrate and tehsildar, Laxman Majhi, Titilagarh SDPO Saroj Mahapatra and Saintala SI Sunil Soren, police recovered the body and sent it for autopsy to Titilagarh government hospital.
After post-mortem, the body was handed over to family members. However, the family members denied to take the body. Later, police performed the final rites and launched a further probe.
Meanwhile, the police detained the deceased Aniruddh Karmi’s (29), elder brother Jagabandhu Karmi (32) and father Gayadhar Karmi for interrogation. A manhunt is on to nab his elder brother Abhiram Karmi (35) who is on the run after the incident.
“Search for the absconder is on and we are interrogating the elder brother and the father in the mean time”, SDPO Mahapatra said.
According to sources, the incident occurred November 18 but came to light eight days later after media persons rushed to the spot following a tip-off and conducted a probe Monday.
Police said Gayadhar stays with his three sons – Abhiram, Jagabandhu and Aniruddha. Among them, Aniruddha was an alcoholic and always came home drunk; on top, he did not earn a living.
The issue cropped up again when Aniruddh came home in an inebriated condition November 18. Aniruddh demanded money for liquor from his family members and threatened to kill them if they refused. He abused them when they refused to give him money.
Aniruddh then asked money from his elder brother Jagabandhu, and tried to assault him when the latter refused. In the dual Jagabandhu retaliated and hit Aniruddh with a wooden plank, killing him on the spot.
The accused then dragged the body to the backyard of their house and dumped it in an abandoned well. He covered the mouth of the well with twigs, branches and leaves the same night. The next day, he brought an earthmover and filled up the well with soil.
Locals suspected foul play, as there was no sight of Aniruddh for days together and alerted some media persons after ten days. The local police also worked on the tip off and reached the village to probe the incident.
Police suspected that the whole family had helped Jagabandhu in burying the body and a further probe was launched.
PNN