The State capital witnessed three murders, including rape and killing of a three-year-old girl, in the past 24 hours, raising serious questions about the safety of women and girls in the city.
In the first incident, a woman was brutally stabbed to death by unknown assailants at the Gothapatna market under the Chandaka police station on Monday night. The deceased was identified as Sasmita Behera, who was staying with her family at Krishnapuri Colony. She owned a tiffin stall at the Gothapatna market.
Police launched a probe into the case to ascertain the motive behind the murder. Additional DCP Prakash Chandra Pal said the woman along with her husband was operating the tiffin stall. The husband was out to bring water when the miscreants assaulted the woman. While the reason behind the murder was still unknown, it seemed to be a case of previous enmity. Police have formed three teams to probe the incident.
In the second incident, a three-year-old girl of the Kela slum under the Airfield police station was raped and murdered on Monday night. The accused in the heinous crime was identified as Ghania, who lives in the same slum.
After allegedly sexually assaulting the girl, Ghania killed her in an apparent bid to hide the crime and fled the spot.
A resident of the Kela slum said the girl suddenly went missing in the evening. After searching for some time, her family members found her body from under a bed.
The Airfield police and a special squad launched a manhunt to nab the accused.
In another incident, a body of a woman was found at her in-laws’ house in Arvind Nagar under the Airfield police station on Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Priyanka Mishra from Kendrapada who was married to Suraj Das of Arvind Nagar in the city.
As per reports, Priyanka was married to Suraj for two and a half years and had been alleging torture by her husband for some time.
Sources said the family of Priyanka had complained multiple times before police about her in-laws torturing her. Police had mediated and compromised the dispute.
Priyanka’s family alleged that she was killed by her husband and in-laws. They also accused Suraj’s family of having forced Priyanka to abort her pregnancy earlier.
Following the complaint, police detained Suraj for questioning.
“The husband of the deceased has been detained. We will also bring his family to the purview of investigation. As the woman’s family alleged that she was killed, a murder case has been registered. But the actual cause of the death can only be ascertained from the postmortem report,” said Additional DCP Pal.
