Malkangiri: Days after the body of a beheaded woman was found near a river in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, her severed head was recovered by the police on Wednesday.
As per preliminary information, the head was spotted around 40 kilometres from the spot where her headless body was found last week. The incident had triggered large scale violence and arson in the area as residents of a village torching and damaging many houses in another village over the headless body.
The severed head was reportedly found near Poteru riverbank close to a Kanya Ashram in Rakhelguda a search operation. A police team recovered the severed head after being informed by locals.
Police said further examination of the recovered head and related investigation are in progress to ascertain the circumstances that led to the woman’s murder..
Notably, the woman’s headless body was recovered on December 4 but the severed head had remained untraceable, fuelling disputes between residents of MV-26 and Rakhelguda villages over the past several days. The missing head had sparked a prolonged dispute between the two villages.
Officials stated that the recovery today took place after villagers informed investigating teams about the presence of the severed head near the river.
The woman, a resident of Rakhelguda, had gone missing on December 3 before her headless body was found a day later.
Meanwhile, a district-level peace committee meeting was held in Malkangiri on Tuesday after the initial unrest between MV-26 and Rakhelguda, where senior officers, including the DIG and Superintendent of Police, met representatives of both villages.
Following talks, a peace pact was arrived at while curbs on internet and deployment of security forces continued in the area.
