Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar/Keonjhar, Jul 12:

The body of a minor girl who was allegedly kidnapped from Khandagiri locality of the Odisha capital has been recovered from Kumuda forested area under Ghasipura police limits in Keonjhar district.

khandagiri murder

The Twin City Commissionerate Police has arrested two persons including a minor in this connection.

The duo has been arrested on charges of murder, rape, and kidnapping, police sources said. The body of the victim was exhumed from the Jhadeswari cremation ground in Ghasipura in Keonjhar district by the police after six days of her being kidnapped. The victim’s body was later identified by her mother in the presence of a magistrate and Khandagiri police, the sources added.

The accused have been identified as one Umakanta Das and his cousin brother (name withheld as he is a minor) belonged to the Khandagiri Bari area where the victim also resided.

“After kidnapping the minor girl, they have murdered her. A murder case has been registered at Ghasipura in Keonjhar district on July 8 in this connection. Up till now, we have come to know that the two are involved in the crime. One is a minor and the other is a resident of Khandagiri area. The two had kidnapped her from here and had kept her at Ghatagaon in Keonjhar and on the next day they had murdered her. They have confessed to the murder and we are further investigating the case. At this stage, it can be said that they had a relationship with the victim,” informed Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi to reporters.

According to details of the case, the duo had kidnapped the minor girl six days back. After raping the victim, the duo had murdered her in cold blood by smashing her with a stone.

Sources revealed that the minor accused had a love affair with the victim. When the victim was insistent for marriage, the minor accused informed his cousin (father’s elder brother’s son)-Umakanta. The duo hatched a conspiracy to dodge her off. They kidnapped the victim on July 6 from Khandagiri area and took her on a bike to Ghatagaon in Keonjhar district.  The duo after raping the victim in a hotel in Ghatagaon on July 7 smashed her to death with a stone in the nearby Kumuda forested area. On the next day, Ghasipura police recovered the body from the forested area. On completion of the autopsy, police buried the victim’s body at the Jhadeswari cremation ground after preserving it for 72 hours.

“My son told me of having seen two persons taking away his sister on a bike near Tadia’s shop. Since she did turn up at home by night, after a lot of searching, we in a piece of paper wrote a complaint and reported it to the police,” said the victim’s mother.

According to latest reports, while the minor accused has been sent to a juvenile home, the other accused has been sent to Jharpada Special Jail.