DHENKANAL: Mystery shrouds the death of a 65-year-old man whose decomposed body was found in an abandoned well near Mrudangapalli village under Odapada police limits here on Wednesday.
The deceased was identified as Pradeep Mohapatra of Tukuda village under Jarapada police limits in the neighbouring Angul district.
OIC of Odapada police station Prasanta Sahoo said Pradeep was mentally unstable. He and his wife had come to his relative’s house at Mrudangapalli on November 4. Pradeep along with other family members went to bed in the night. But the next morning, he could not be found.
The next day, his relatives filed a missing complaint in Odapada police outpost. The OIC said basing on the complaint, police registered a case and started investigation. However, Pradeep could not be traced. On the day, some children of Mrudangapalli spotted his boy in the abandoned well and alerted villagers.
Prasanta said on being informed, police rushed to the village and found the body in a highly-decomposed state. The local fire services personnel were roped in, but they could not retrieve the body. “The deceased’s body would be recovered from the well on Thursday and sent to Dhenkanal district headquarters hospital for autopsy,” he said.
Ruling out murder, the OIC said it is believed that as Pradeep was mentally unstable, he might have come out of the house in the night and accidentally fallen into the well. However, the exact reason of his death will be ascertained after the postmortem report arrives. Further investigation is underway, he added.