Berhampur: An elderly woman was found dead in her house at Alakapuri 7th Lane under Sadar police station here. She has been identified as Suraja Behera (58), wife of Bijaya Chandra Behera, a retired Assistant District Social Welfare Officer (ADSWO).
According to reports, Suraja was found in a pool of blood with cut marks on her neck, hand and multiple injuries, inflicted by a sharp weapon, on other parts of the body, police said.
The body was sent to MKCG Medical College and Hospital for postmortem, said Berhampur SP, Pinak Mishra.
Mishra said the woman was murdered on Thursday night when she was alone at home after her husband went for a walk. Additional SP Ramesh Chandra Sethi, SDPO Sadar Siba Shankar Mahapatra and IIC Sadar PS Mahendra Kumar Sahu visited the spot last night and began investigation.
After preliminary investigation it was found that miscreants locked the house from outside after the incident, the SP added.
When her husband returned from walk and saw the house locked from outside, he thought that Suraja might have gone somewhere and waited for sometime. “I called on her mobile phone but there was no reply. I then called my son Rashmi who also tried to contact Suraja but there was no response,” said Bijay.
The couple has a son Rashmi Ranjan who works in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and was in Bhubaneswar during the incident.
Rashmi reached home today and has demanded stringent punishment for those involved in the killing of his mother. He said, Suraja’s mobile phone is missing.
Though the motive of the murder is not clear, and there is no property loss reported from the house, said Berhampur SP.
It may be mentioned that a theft was reported in the same house three months ago and it was reported in Sadar PS.