Lady Municipality staff murdered in Bolangir, probe underway

In a shocking incident, blood-soaked body of a staff of Bolangir municipality was recovered near the waste management plant at Bijakhaman area on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as Astami Bakul, a driver of the waste management vehicle.

As per reports, Astami had reportedly gone missing soon after parking the vehicle at the waste management plant on Saturday evening at around 6:12 pm yesterday. It is suspected that she has been murdered as there are injury marks on her body.

Sources said that after parking the vehicle, the lady staff was returning home on her bicycle when she was reportedly attacked by some miscreants. Though the exact motive is unclear, it is suspected that the miscreants attacked her with an intention to loot valuables.

Two days back, two teachers were also attacked by miscreants at the same place which is a secluded area. Despite this, no step was allegedly taken by the police to intensify patrolling in the area.

"She had called one of our staff who then called me and asked me to enquire about the incident. We saw from the CCTV that she was returning on her bicycle after parking the vehicle. We were being pressurized by the officials to work more and return in the late evening at the isolated place," said a colleague of the deceased.

Meanwhile, the mysterious death of BJD Zilla Parishad member Dharmendra Sahoo in Bhubaneswar took a political turn with the Opposition BJP on Saturday alleging the role of State School and Mass Minister and local MLA Samir Ranjan Dash in the case.