Balasore: Three persons of a village, who had gone missing for the last four days, were allegedly found murdered atop a hill in Odisha’s Balasore district on Thursday.
According to sources, a community feast was organised for birthday celebration of a villager in Barapada village under Oupada police station in the district on Sunday. Many people from neighbouring villages had also come on invitation to the feast.
While the villagers were taking food, an argument ensued between some villagers of Barapada and those of another village. After the feast was over, Sombari Singh and Dambag Singh and his wife Tabaka Singh were found missing.
Sombari’s son Niranjan Singh, who studies in Bhubaneswar, could not contact his mother over phone since Sunday. His relatives in the village and other villagers also could not say anything about her. Worried over it, he went to Oupada police station and filed a complaint about his missing mother.
A police team went to Barapada and enquired about Sombari from the villagers. On the basis of their statement, the police launched a search operation in the hill near the village. During the search, they found the bodies of Sombari and the couple.
The police sent the bodies for post-mortem and registered a case of unnatural death. They have also detained six villagers and were questioning them. Police suspected that the three persons were beaten to death by the people from the nearby village following altercation on the day of birthday celebration and dumped the bodies in the forest.