ROURKELA: Police have ruled out foul play in the mysterious death of a 22-year-old woman from Jharkhand whose body was found in a field of bushes near Rourkela on March 6.
Police said investigation revealed that the woman, Sabani Birua of Barkatoli near Chaibasa under West Sighbhum district of adjacent Jharkhand, died of cardiac failure while sitting with her male friend at a field in Kalunga.
On Tuesday, Brahmani Tarang (BT) police produced Birua’s male friend Bikash Haiburu (29), also from Barkatoli, in court after arresting him on charges of negligence, not calling an ambulance and hiding information.
During the morning hours on March 6, the woman’s body was found lying in an isolated field surrounded by bushes, about 100 metre away from the Saw Mill-Kalunga road on the outskirts of Rourkela.
After identifying the woman, police detained Haiburu for questioning. During investigation, it was found that Haiburu and Birua were in love and their respective families were aware of their relationship. On March 5, both came to Rourkela for some work.
Police said with a plan to take a late night train to Jharkhand, Haiburu and Birua went to the isolated field to spend some private moments. During questioning, Haiburu revealed that while they were sitting together, the woman complained of severe uneasiness, heavy breathing and chest pain. After she collapsed, he became scared and escaped from the scene with her belongings.
BT police registered an unnatural death case and waited for the autopsy report to ascertain the exact reason of death. After the autopsy report attributed Birua’s death to heart failure, police cleared Haiburu of murder but arrested him on other counts.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said no foul play was involved in the woman’s death. Her male friend was arrested for showing negligence, not calling ambulance to enable her medical treatment and hiding the incident.
DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Kumar Rai said to further ascertain the exact reason of death, the victim’s viscera sample was sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory, Bhubaneswar. The report is awaited.