Kataka: After nearly three weeks’ investigation, the Commissionerate Police have cracked the blind murder case of a 29-year-old woman, whose body was recovered along the Kathajodi riverbank in Odisha’s Kataka.
The breakthrough came after a distinctive tattoo bearing the words “Abinash–Gauri”, accompanied by a small nose pin and unique facial characteristics, on her forearm helped policer establish her identity, leading to the eventual arrest of the accused in Andhra Pradesh.
The victim has been identified as Gauri Bhoi, a native of Narla in Odisha’s Kalahandi district. Police have arrested her paramour, 36-year-old Jalandhar Bag of Komna in Nuapada district, who was nabbed from Puttur in Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh, where he had been working as a construction labourer.
The gruesome incident occurred on the evening of October 7. Gauri’s body was found near Raja Bagicha under the Badambadi police limits. Initial investigations faced severe hurdles as the killer had attempted to conceal the victim’s identity by cropping her hair, gouging out her eyes, and smashing her face with a heavy brick, in addition to inflicting deep cuts on her neck. Local residents noticed that her body appeared to have been dragged nearly 50 meters from a spot along the riverbank where remnants of a feast, utensils, a blood-stained mat, and her footwear were found abandoned.
Addressing the media, Commissioner of Police S Dev Datta Singh explained that police launched a social media search around the name ‘Abinash-Gauri’, uncovering a Facebook profile belonging to an Abinash Sahu from Narla. Local police confirmed that Abinash was Gauri’s husband. Photographs verified a matching tattoo on Abinash, who was in jail in a dacoity case.
Abinash provided clues, pointing to Bag, with whom Gauri was in an extra-marital affair the former’s imprisonment.
Further inquiries revealed that Bag and Gauri had left Bhawanipatna on September 8 to reside in a rented house in the Naugan area of Jagatsinghpur, where Bag worked as a mason.
According to Kataka DCP Khilari Rishikesh Dnyandeo, a violent quarrel broke out between the couple on October 6, during which Bag mercilessly assaulted Gauri, inflicting severe head injuries. She was taken to Naugan Community Health Centre (CHC), but attending doctor advised transferring her to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Kataka for advanced care. The duo reached Kataka by bus around noon on October 7. Fearing that Gauri would report the prior assault to police or medical staff, Bag lured her to secluded Kathajodi riverbed later that evening and brutally bludgeoned her to death.
Following the crime, Bag went into hiding and adopted multiple aliases while constantly shifting locations across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to evade arrest. He strictly avoided using mobile phones or electronic communication. Special investigative teams formed by the Commissionerate Police, alongside the Kataka Urban Police District Cyber Cell, analysed Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) call logs, hospital records, and CCTV footage across multiple districts. He was, eventually, nabbed from Andhra Pradesh, the DCP added.
