In a shocking incident, decomposed dead bodies of five members of a family were recovered by police from a one-bed room house of the Kulda Coalmines under the Hemgiri police station in Sundargarh district on Monday afternoon. Senior police officials including Sundargarh SP Pinak Mishra reached the spot and started investigation.
Sources said locals of the residential colony of the Kulda Coalmines, a unit of the Mahanadi Coalfields ltd (MCl), informed the police in morning that foul smell was coming from the closed house. A police team, which visited the spot, broke open the main door of the house.
The deceased were identified as Ramayan Prasad Sharma (50), his wife Milli (43), son Rabindra (19), elder daughter Sanju (16) and younger daughter Anju (11).
Ramayan Prasad, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was working as a labour contractor in the mines. Neighbours said they had not seen the family members coming out since Friday last.
SP Pinak Mishra said, “Since, all doors of the house were locked from inside, the possibility of a murder is very remote in this case. During preliminary investigation, we have located a kerosene-driven generator, due to which we suspect it to be a case of asphyxia (choking of breath due to smoke). For that reason, we are seeking help of an electrical engineer. A team of doctors would conduct postmortem.”
Mishra also did not rule out the possibility of a suicidal pact of the family. This could only be ascertained in postmortem report, he added.