CUTTACK: A 46-year-old man was found dead on the main road at Brahmapura within 42 Mouza police limits on Wednesday.
The deceased was identified as Santosh Kumar Barik of Kalyani Nagar in the city. Police said Santosh, who was earlier an autorickshaw driver by profession, had switched to being a daily wage labourer for the last two to three months, after his vehicle was seized by a finance company for being unable to pay the monthly installments.
He had been staying separately with his wife at a rented house in Jhinkiria for the last few months following some dispute with his family. He was an alcoholic and often assaulted his wife when drunk. Two months back, Barik had hit his wife so severely that she fractured her leg, police said.
On Tuesday night, locals found him banging his head to a parked pickup van in an inebriated condition. He was found dead on Wednesday. On being informed, police reached the spot along with scientific team and launched an investigation.
“An unnatural death case has been registered basing on the complaint of his wife Pushpanjali Barik. The body has been sent to SCB Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. While the postmortem report is awaited, the doctors who conducted the autopsy suggest Barik died due to a brain haemorrhage,” said a senior police office while ruling out any foul play.