Minor Odisha girl ends life over love affair; family buries body in forest fearing ignominy

Bhubaneswar: The body of a minor girl was found buried in a jungle in Odisha’s Kandhamal district today.

The deceased was a resident of Saroda village in Nayagarh district, police said.

According to sources, the 17-year-old girl was in love with a married man of her village and she was eager to marry her lover.

However, the girl’s family opposed her relationship with the married man. Even, the girl’s father had thrashed her over the issue a few days ago, sources said.

The minor girl reportedly ended her life by consuming poison yesterday. Her father along with two of their relatives allegedly carried the girl’s body to Karada jungle under Phiringia police limits in Kandhamal district in a vehicle and buried it in an attempt to cover up the incident, sources added.

Nuagaon police in Nayagarh, somehow, came to know about the incident today. The police got detailed information in this regard after interrogating two relatives of the deceased girl.

Soon a police team comprising Nuagaon IIC Narayan Lenka and his Phiringia counterpart Ramesh Kumar Pradhan exhumed the girl’s body from the jungle in the presence of local Tehsildar and Executive Magistrate Anamika Pande, villagers said.

The girl’s body has been sent to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) for postmortem. A scientific team has been called in to assist in the investigation, said a police officer.

“We have registered a murder case in this regard and detained two relatives of the deceased girl. Her father has absconded since the incident. It is being suspected that the girl might have been killed by her family members,” added the official.