Berhampur: Police on Wednesday recovered the decomposed body of a realtor, allegedly abducted from Dura on April 15, from the forest area near Gajalabadi under Ganjam district’s Sorada police station limits.
The deceased was identified as Sudhir Patra (47) of Satyanarayanapur, near Gopalpur.The night Patra was abducted, an anonymous caller demanded Rs 2 crore in ransom for the realtor’s release, family members told the police. Since then, the family had no contact with Patra or the kidnappers, said police.“We rushed to the spot along with family members of the deceased and a forensic team. Though the body was beyond recognition, his family identified him from the garments he wore at the time of abduction,” said Subhransu Parida, sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Berhampur Sadar.He said as the body was highly decomposed and not in a position to be carried to MKCG Medical College for post-mortem, the autopsy was conducted on the spot and handed over the body to his family members to perform the last rites, Parida added.Police suspected the abductors might have killed him on April 15 night itself and dumped the body in the forest area to destroy evidence. “Earlier, we registered an abduction case and searched him with multiple teams.
Now, we have registered an abduction and murder of the man,” said the SDPO. The deceased’s wife, Rashmi Rekha Patra, lodged an FIR.Police said the exact reason of the incident was yet to be clear. “We are investigating from various possible angles, including business rivalry and past enmity. We have established some clues in this sensational case and the people involved in the incident would be arrested soon,” said the SDPO.
