BHUBANESWAR / BERHAMPUR: A dogged probe by Ganjam Police led to arrest of a taxi driver and his female friend for allegedly murdering their 19-year-old domestic help in Bhubaneswar. The duo allegedly carried the victim in a car to Jagannathprasad where they dumped her body and fled.
The accused Manas Ranjan Paikray and his partner Sarojini Sahu were staying in the Capital’s Bharatpur area where they had employed the 19-year-old as household help in their residence.The girl’s body was recovered from a paddy field near Bhusandapala village of Ganjam’s Jagannathprasad on December 2 following which local police registered a case under Sections 201 and 302 of IPC.After the body, kept at Bhanjanagar sub-divisional hospital, had no claimants for 72 hours, the police performed the last rites as the victim’s identity could not be established.
However, Jagannathprasad police had a clue from a piece of paper which they found on the victim’s dress. It carried a telephone number. When police contacted the number, the caller informed that he had spoken to the girl in Bhubaneswar while she was strolling on the roads in search of work.At least five teams were formed and the victim’s photographs were widely circulated in Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Nayagarh and Kandhamal to ascertain her identity. Scientific and cyber teams along with dog squads were also engaged to crack the case.
Subsequently, Jagannathprasad police station’s IIC received information from Bhubaneswar claiming that the girl was employed in the Capital. The IIC immediately visited the city and questioned an informer. He collected information about the girl’s employers and nabbed them.Police said Paikray was working as a taxi driver and was allegedly also involved in flesh trade. They suspect that apart from physically assaulting the victim, he was forcing her into flesh trade and the verification of the same is continuing.
“Initial investigation suggests the girl was strangulated to death over some dispute. Both the accused left Bhubaneswar in the taxi operated by Paikray on December 1 and disposed of the girl’s body wrapped in a bed sheet at about 3.30 am on December 2,” Ganjam SP Brijesh Rai told TNIE.DNA profiling of the victim’s father was also conducted to establish her identity, he added. The police have seized the four-wheeler used in the crime along with six mobile phones from the accused.