Bhubaneswar: The body of a woman was found buried near a cremation ground in Hinjilicut area of Odisha’s Ganjam district today.

It is being suspected that someone might have killed the woman, aged around 20, and buried her body to destroy the evidence.

According to sources, a few residents of Mahulapalli under Hinjilicut police limits in Ganjam spotted a freshly-created mound near the village cremation ground today morning. Suspecting something unpleasant, they informed the incident to the local Sarpanch and Panchayat Samiti member.

The body of an unidentified woman was found buried when the villagers cleared the mound in the presence of Aska Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Umashankar Singh, Kukudakhandi Additional Tehsildar Swagatika Rath and Hinjilicut police IIC Abhimanyu Das, sources said.

“It was found that the woman’s body had been covered with salt. The miscreants might have used salt for quick decomposition of the body,” said a local.

“We have seized the body and sent it for postmortem after registering an unnatural death case in this regard. The identity of the woman is yet to be ascertained. We are waiting for the postmortem report to know the exact reason behind her death,” said Hinjilicut police IIC.