The Cuttack rural police on Tuesday morning retrieved the body of a 25-year-old girl from a canal near Haripur Bazar, 15 km from here under the Kishornagar police station. The police said they fished out the girl’s completely nude body with multiple injuries in her face and chest and blood stains were found in her nose and vagina.
“Prima facie, it was a case of rape and murder and the circumstantial evidences suggest that more than one perpetrator were involved in this gruesome incident,” said local SDPO SK Ray.
The police said the girl’s father late on Monday evening had lodged a complaint stating that his daughter, who had gone to the local market to make some purchases, went missing. Quoting family sources, the police said the girl had left her home around 7 pm, and when she did not return by 9 pm, the family members made a frantic search for her.
Failing to trace the girl, the father informed the police about it at around 11 pm, following which the police launched a frantic search in the area and traced the girl’s bicycle lying behind a bush. The police then traced the wearing apparels of the girl floating in the canal water. It was, however, on Tuesday morning that the girl’s body was traced in the canal water.
Family members of the girl alleged that it was a case of gang-rape and brutal murder and they suspect some locals were involved in it. The police, however, are tightlipped about the progress made in the investigation till now.