BHAWANIPATNA: Mystery shrouds the death of a missing engineering student whose decomposed body was found hanging from a roadside tree at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district on Sunday evening.
Police identified the deceased as 21-year-old Laxminarayan Majhi of Kamegaon in Narla block. A first-year student of a private engineering college, Majhi was missing since December 8.
Sources said locals first spotted the student’s highly-decomposed body hanging from a tree near a dumping yard. On being informed, Bhawanipatna Sadar police reached the spot and seized the body.
On Monday, scientific team visited the spot for investigation and recovered a school bag and a bicycle lying nearby. Majhi was identified from a notebook inside the bag which had his name written on it.
Investigation officer (IO) Soumya Ranjan Pradhan said as the student’s family members had filed a missing report on December 8, they were called to identify the body. Majhi’s bother identified his body on Tuesday.
The student’s family members said Majhi was frustrated as he had no interest in studies. “Prima facie, it appears to be a case of suicide. However, investigation is underway from all angles and police are waiting for the postmortem report to ascertain the exact cause of the student’s death,” the IO added.