BERHAMPUR: Nearly a year after the decomposed body of a 35-year-old woman was found in a lodge in Ganjam’s Baidyanathpur, Berhampur police has solved the murder mystery by tracing the accused in a jail of Kerala.
Berhampur SP Sarvana Vivek M said the murder accused, Sameedmon AS (42), was lodged in a Kerala jail in connection with an NDPS case. A team of Baidyanathpur police brought Sameedmon on a two-day remand to Odisha on Monday.
On Tuesday, the accused was taken to the lodge where he recreated the scene of the murder in presence of police. Sameedmon, a resident of Kerala, also revealed the chilling details of his crime.
The SP said the body of Kamanapalli Krishna Veni of Visakhapatnam was found in the lodge in a decomposed state on November 25, 2023. On being questioned, the lodge manager said Veni accompanied by a man had booked the room two days back.
When the man went missing without paying the rent, the lodge staff reached the room and found the woman lying dead on the bed.
Subsequently, police sent the body for autopsy and registered a murder case basing on the circumstantial evidence. During investigation, police identified the man as Sameedmon but could not trace him.
Last week, the cops came to know that the accused was lodged in a Kerala jail after being arrested in a NDPS case around four months back. A team of Baidyanathpur police then went to Kerala and brought Sameedmon to Odisha.
The SP said Veni and the accused were divorced but living together. During mid-2023, the woman’s 19-year-old son from her first marriage was arrested by Visakhapatnam police in an NDPS case.
Believing that her son was arrested because of Sameedmon, who was also involved in illegal drug trade, Veni used to fight with the accused regularly.
Fearing that Veni might tell police about his involvement in drug trade, Sameedmon hatched a plan to eliminate her. The accused brought the woman to Berhampur on some pretext and killed her in the lodge.
After committing the crime, he returned to Kerala and became involved in ganja trade till he was nabbed by police around four months back.