Odisha woman’s body recovered from under kitchen slab; son on run

A woman’s decomposed body was recovered from under the kitchen slab of her rented home in Odisha’s Puri late Monday night, police said on Tuesday, adding that her son, who is suspected of killing her, was on the run.

A police and forensic team spent about three hours breaking a box-like structure under the slab after the woman’s landlady, Manorama Sahu, on Monday evening reported a foul smell and suspected that a body had been concealed there.

The woman and her son had rented the house about two months ago, Sahu said. The woman had not been seen for days, and her son had been missing since Monday, prompting Sahu to alert police.

Sahu told police she initially suspected that a dead cat or rat could have caused the smell, but became suspicious when it grew strong. “She told us that the woman’s son frequently appeared to be under the influence of drugs and often argued with her mother. They had also defaulted on rent payments,” Puri police superintendent Prateek Singh said.

Police found the house was empty, while fresh cement work was visible in the kitchen. “Wastewater and material were emerging from beneath the kitchen slab, accompanied by a strong foul smell. The body was recovered from a box-type structure,” said Singh.

The body was recovered in the presence of an executive magistrate and a scientific team and sent for a post-mortem. Police have not yet identified the woman.

Singh said the son’s absence increased suspicion against him, but police were collecting scientific and technical evidence to establish what happened and the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death. “We are collecting all kinds of evidence ... and trying to find out the reason behind the incident and how exactly it happened,” Singh said.

Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states.