CUTTACK: The body of a 40-year-old man, murdered by unidentified miscreants, was found floating in a canal at Bhairpur within Jagatpur police limits on Wednesday. The victim, Ramesh Bhoi, a mason by profession, had gone to Kendrapara branch canal, around 100 metres from his house to attend nature’s call at around 2 am and did not return, said his wife Lata.
Ramesh’s body was found floating in the canal in the morning and was identified by his wife. On being informed, personnel of Jagatpur police retrieved the body and started an investigation into the matter with the help of a scientific team and sniffer dog.
While multiple injury marks were found on the head of the deceased, police also found some hair and blood stains on the bridge over the canal. It is suspected that Ramesh may have been killed by some robbers who were attempting to loot a few houses in an adjacent village.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that a group of thieves were attempting to commit theft from two/three houses at Sujapur village. However, after villagers woke up and chased them, the thieves who fled away towards Bhairpur might have come across Ramesh on the canal bridge.
In apprehension of being identified and caught, the miscreants might have hacked him to death and later dumped the body in the canal,” said DCP Prateek Singh who also inspected the murder spot at Bhairpur. He said efforts are on to nab the culprits at the earliest.