Bhubaneswar/Cuttack: The family of a 28-year-old MBBS student, whose body was recovered from the Kathajodi river in Odisha’s Cuttack city, on Friday alleged that a love triangle led to her death.
Chandrika Hembram, a final-year student at Fakir Mohan Medical College and Hospital in Balasore, hailed from Raidandia village under Udala police station limits in Mayurbhanj district. Her body was spotted early Thursday morning by morning walkers near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Setu (Trisulia Bridge) in Cuttack. They noticed an abandoned bag and a pair of slippers near the edge of the bridge, then saw the body lying on a sand bed in the shallow waters of the river.
Barang police and Fire Services personnel reached the spot around 5:40 am, retrieved the body after trekking about 1.5 km, and sent it to SCB Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. A doctor’s prescription and a mobile phone found in the bag helped identify the deceased.
According to Chandrika’s family, she had been in a long-term relationship of nearly 15 years with a medical student at the same college. The couple had reportedly planned to marry in 2027. The relationship, however, soured after another woman entered the picture, leading to frequent disputes and alleged harassment. “She went into depression thereafter,” the grieving mother told the media.
Chandrika had visited her sister in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday and was found dead the following morning.
In the police complaint, her mother and brother alleged that the constant mental and physical harassment might have driven her to take the extreme step. They also suspected that her boyfriend along with his female friend could also have killed her and later dumped the body on Kathajodi river.
This incident came shortly after another unidentified woman’s body was recovered from the Kathajodi riverbed near Brahmanigan, which had led to separate controversies including alleged custodial torture.
