CUTTACK: A 36-year-old woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances inside the bathroom of a lodge in Mangalabag of Cuttack on Saturday evening.
The deceased was identified as Mamata Mallik of Khunta in Balasore district. Her body was recovered from the bathroom of room no 125 of Shree Binayak lodge on Medical Road under Mangalabag police limits.
The incident came to light after staff of the lodge went to the room to ask for checkout at around 6.30 pm. However, they reportedly noticed that the door of the room was open and no one was present inside.
As per the staff, they went inside the bathroom where they found the body of the woman in a sitting position against the bathroom wall with cotton stuffed in her nostrils and her eyes open.
On being informed, police reached the spot and launched an investigation. Probe revealed Mallik had checked into the lodge at around 6.30 pm on Friday along with a man whom she had identified as her husband. She had booked the lodge room for a day. However, during the time of checkout, the male companion was absconding, police said.
During searches, police recovered some prescriptions which revealed that the woman had undergone treatment at the gynaecology and obstetrics department of SCB Medical College and Hospital on Saturday.
A senior police officer said they also seized the lodge register, mobile phone of the woman, her vanity bag and CCTV footage which are being verified. “We accessed the phone number of the woman’s husband Jagannath Mallik and contacted him. He said he had left her at Cuttack railway station on Friday as she had an appointment in the gynaecology department of SCB. He, however, expressed ignorance about the man who accompanied his wife to the lodge,” said the officer.
The body of the deceased was handed over to her husband after postmortem. “The postmortem report is awaited to ascertain the exact cause of her death. The identity of the man who was accompanying her has also been established and efforts are underway to nab him soon,” said the police officer.