Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police cracked a seven-month-old missing person case that turned into a murder investigation after decomposed skeletal remains of a 24-year-old woman caretaker was found from an abandoned stone quarry pond at Tapang in Khurda district on Friday.
The woman, Nirupama Parida, went missing from the Bharatpur area in Bhubaneswar on January 24 this year. She was employed as a caretaker at the residence of a businessman, who reported the matter to police on January 27. With no perceived headway in the case, her family sought intervention from the chief minister’s grievance cell last month, prompting the formation of a special investigation team and transfer of the inspector-in-charge of Bharatpur police station last week.
A vital breakthrough in the case had come when investigators discovered a social media reel featuring Debasish Bisoi, 26, who worked as an electrician in Bhubaneswar, and the woman at the Tapang quarry. Though Bisoi was questioned multiple times, lack of evidence stalled the case. The woman’s phone was also found switched off since her disappearance, which further complicated the probe. However, he recently activated her phone, which allowed police to track him.
Bisoi then confessed to the crime during questioning and led them to her remains.
Both the victim and the accused belong to Ranpur in Nayagarh district.
Police said Bisoi, who was in a three-year relationship with Parida, suspected her of infidelity. He lured her to the quarry under the guise of filming social media videos and strangled her to death. He then dumped her body under tree branches hanging over shallow water, ensuring it would never float to the surface.