BHUBANESWAR: The body of the three-year-old girl who allegedly went missing from her house in Nayagarh district last week was fished out from a pond in her village Badhipatna on Tuesday.
The girl had gone missing from her house under Ranpur police limits in the district on December 11 afternoon. Odisha Fire Service personnel and local police found the body during a search operation.
Initial investigation suggested the girl died due to drowning. However, the probe is continuing and the exact reason behind her death can be ascertained after receiving the victim’s post-mortem report, said a police officer.
The pond is a few metre away from the girl’s house and is filled with algae. Water was taken out and her body was recovered. The scientific team has been called to carry out further investigation into the incident, he added
The victim’s father Sanjay Kumar Sahoo suspects foul play behind her daughter’s death. Sahoo and his wife have twin daughters and a son. The couple’s younger daughter was playing outside their house and later she went missing between 2 pm and 2.30 pm.
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The girl’s father is a mason. He was at home along with other family members when she mysteriously disappeared. He launched a frantic search to trace his daughter but to no avail. A missing complaint was then lodged in Ranpur police station.
On the basis of the complaint, a case was registered and at least three police teams were formed to trace the missing girl.
The police also took the assistance of Odisha Fire Service personnel and sniffer dogs on December 12 to find the minor girl. Fire service personnel vigorously conducted searches in wells and ponds of the village and traced her body earlier in the day.
The incident comes amid the political slugfest over the alleged kidnapping and brutal murder of a five-year-old girl in Nayagarh’s Jadupur village in July this year.