A shocking case was reported in Odisha’s Puri in which a disfigured body of an 18-year-old woman dressed in only her underclothes was found on the beach near the Penthakata area, five km from Swaragadwar the heart of the pilgrim town, three days after she went missing.
Victim’s family on Monday demanded a high-level probe into the incident claiming that the woman, whose body was found on the beach, was kidnapped from the hotel, raped, killed and disfigured before being thrown into the sea.
The police, however, suspect the death of the woman, who hails from a village in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, was due to drowning in the sea.
The family members have met Puri superintendent of police K V Singh during the day and demanded the high-level investigation.
The disfigured body of the 18-year-old woman dressed in only her underclothes was found in the beach near the Penthakata area, five km from Swaragadwar the heart of the pilgrim town, on November 26, three days after she went missing.
The news sent a shock wave among the people in this seaside pilgrim town coming as it did after reports in the national media during the day of a man Anjan Das being allegedly killed and chopped into pieces by his wife and stepson at Pandavnagar in Delhi.
It was a chilling recall of the horrific Shraddha Walkar murder in which her body was chopped into pieces by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawallah in the flat they rented at Mehrauli, also in the national capital.
Both murders allegedly took place in May and the victims' bodies were cut into pieces by their killers and disposed of in bags on the sly over a period of time.
A crime similar to the brutal killing of Shraddha Walker had surfaced last week at Baruipur in West Bengal where an ex-navy man was killed and his body was chopped into pieces and dumped in a number of nearby places allegedly by his son. Police arrested the man's wife and son in the case.
Puri police said the face of the woman was absolutely blackened, probably by chemicals like acid and her fingers were mutilated.
"It could, however, also be due to the long exposure to saline water of the sea as the body had floated face down.
Her fingers may have been eaten away by any marine creature".
The father, however, claimed that acid was poured on her face by her killer to hide her identity.
Acid was also poured on her back. It was her father who had identified her from her earrings, gold nose pin, red band in her hand and a bllack one on her ankle.
Disturbing images shared with PTI showed that the body was bloated with at least one finger missing. It also had a number of cut marks on it.
“We have registered an unnatural death case. However, keeping in view the family members suspicions I have asked an officer of the level of deputy superintendent of police to probe into the incident," the SP told PTI over phone.
The family members said the woman had gone missing on November 23 after she left the hotel room to collect their clothes that were drying outside.
They alleged that the woman was kidnapped from the hotel and killed by pouring acid on her face so that she could not be recognized.
The family had lodged a missing case at the sea beach police station on November 23 and left the town, the police said.
The body was found three days later.
The family members also said that they were informed of the body being found on the beach after the post mortem.
“The incident is no less horrific than the brutal the killing in Delhi where body of a young woman (Shradha) was chopped into pieces by her live-in partner (Aftab),” a tourist from West Bengal said.
(With PTI input)
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