JAJPUR: The body of a missing teenage girl was found in a pond near Barikula village within Mangalpur police limits here on Sunday night. The deceased was identified as 14-year-old Amrita Dash, a Class IX student of Barikula village. She had gone missing on Saturday evening.
Sources said Amrita left her house to attend tuition class at nearby Bahabalpur village. When she didn’t return, family members launched a search for her. Later, they found her schoolbag and cycle in a pond, nearly two km away from her house. Subsequently, her body was found floating in the water body.
Amrita’s family members alleged that she was murdered and her body dumped in the pond. “Every day, my daughter went to tuition in the evening and returned by 7.30 pm. When she did not return home by 8 pm on Saturday, we got suspicious and searched for her. Her body was found in a pond. We suspect that Amrita has been murdered,” said father Amulya Kumar Dash.
On Sunday, Amulya lodged an FIR with Mangalpur police seeking a thorough probe into the incident. In the complaint, he stated that some local youths had passed lewd comments at Amrita on September 2 when she was on her way to tuition class. When the girl retaliated, the youths threatened her with dire consequences.
Police said the girl’s body was seized and sent for postmortem. “We are waiting for the autopsy report to ascertain the cause of her death. Further investigation is underway,” said an officer of Mangalpur police station.