Bhubaneswar: Panic gripped the Odisha capital early Sunday morning after a headless body of an unidentified man was found lying on a road near Baramunda Bus Stand.
Local residents spotted the severed remains around 4 am, opposite the Tata Motors showroom near the Baramunda overbridge and bus stand area, shortly after heavy overnight rainfall. Horrified witnesses promptly alerted the police. Officers from Bharatpur and Khandagiri police stations rushed to the scene, secured the area, and recovered the body, which was then sent to Capital Hospital for postmortem. A forensic team was also deployed to gather evidence from the spot.
While some initial assessments lean toward a road accident, police have not ruled out murder, with suspicions that the victim could have been killed elsewhere and the body dumped at the location. Drag marks were found on the road, suggesting the victim may have been struck and dragged by a heavy vehicle over a distance. Police are also probing a potential connection to a separate road accident reported earlier on the Tamando overbridge, where a critically injured motorcyclist was taken to AIIMS Hospital, to determine if the same vehicle dragged the victim along the highway stretch to Baramunda.
CCTV footage from nearby commercial establishments, traffic junctions, and the highway are being examined to trace vehicle movements and reconstruct the sequence of events.
Early leads indicate the deceased may have been a resident of the nearby Patrapada area, and efforts are underway to confirm his identity.