ROURKELA: The steel city on Sunday woke up to another horrific murder - totalling four in as many days - as a man was found dead with his neck slit, behind a makeshift mutton shop a few metres away from the permanently closed STI level-crossing under RN Pali police station here.
Initially, it was a blind case. However, a five-year-old child gave vital lead to the crime. The identity of the deceased was ascertained and police arrested the alleged murderer Bikash Gochhayat (24) of Angul. The knife used in the crime was also recovered from the accused.
Sources said, the butcher had come to open his shop in the wee hours in view of the Sunday rush. When he went behind the shop, he hit the body in the darkness and fell on it. He panicked and informed the police immediately.
The deceased has been identified as Amrit Mahakud, a native of nearby Chandiposh area, who was working as a daily earner and staying at a slum near the level-crossing. The accused Gochhayat who lived in the same locality was known to Mahakud.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said preliminary investigation revealed that Gochhayat and Mahakud had a quarrel on Saturday night. Gochhayat then brought a knife from his house and slit the throat of Mahakud.
The SP said the crime took place over personal enmity and investigation is underway to ascertain the reason. “While the locals were silent, a small kid who had seen them quarrelling gave description of the accused leading to solving of the case,” he said.
Gochhayat was produced before the court on charges of murder and the knife used in the crime along with blood-stained apparel were seized.
Meanwhile, the night before on Friday, an electrician Bhola Singh (45) was allegedly stabbed with a screwdriver by his friend Mukesh Kharia (32) following a fight in inebriated condition at the Malgodam slum under Uditnagar police station. Singh, who was left in his home without treatment, died at the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) on Saturday afternoon.
Police registered a case of culpabale homicide not amounting to murder on the ground that Kharia attacked him in retaliation to Singh’s attempts to throttle him. Police also cited Kharia admitted him to hospital.
However, those aware of the incident said after stabbing Singh, Kharia had left him at his home. The neighbours found Singh writhing in pain in his house the next morning and confronted Kharia, who then rushed him to the hospital.
Prior to this on Wednesday night, a diploma engineering student Mukesh Kar (21) was stabbed to death by a youth of a rival group during a clash at the crowded VSS market of Chhend Colony. On the same night, during a drunken brawl, a man had slit the throat of his friend while he was sleeping on the pavement at the Gandhi Road area under Plant Site police limits.