Nephew suspects Hyder hand in Odisha activist Naliniprava’s murder

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, May 26:

The nephew of well-known social activist Naliniprava. whose decomposed body was found dead in her house near the aerodrome area in the Odisha capital on Saturday, has alleged the involvement of gangster Hyder in the murder of his aunt.

“Hyder gang is involved in the murder. The gang had earlier threatened her to vacate her valuable plot (207-N) in the upmarket aerodrome area,” said her nephew Brundaban Barik.

“I also suspect an auto driver named Muna, who was closely associated with her. His cell phone has been switched off ever since the incident came to fore,” he added.

Despite Brundaban directly accusing the Hyder gang in the case, the police denied having received any complaint regarding land grab threat from the activist, who was closely associated with former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik. Neither are her neighbours aware of any such threat, even though she was well-connected with them.

In the face of the preliminary investigations conducted by the Airfield police so far, the cops have come round to accept land grab to be the primary motive of the murder as her house has not been looted or ransacked.  Neither are there any marks of abuse or scuffle in her body. But further investigations are still on and the cops are looking for auto driver Muna.

It may be noted that Naliniprava was unmarried and had informed her circle of her decision to donate her land and property to an orphanage. The cops assume that this decision could have irked some of her relatives who were eyeing this property.

“We are yet to crack the case. More details are awaited from the post-mortem report. However, we suspect that she was murdered and that she was murdered five days back,” said a senior officer investigating the case.

The police also revealed that her cell phone, which should have been there with her, was missing even though there was no evidence of any other theft yet. The cops assume it to be a job done by someone she knew, who locked the front doors from outside after killing her and fled the scene.

The cops have started rummaging her cell phone records for more leads into the case. Given her connections in the power circles, the location of the crime and significance of the case, Police Commissioner Rajendra Sharma visited the crime spot himself along with other senior officers o supervise the investigation.