Panic sets in as 'psycho serial killer' strikes Cuttack

The victims' heads were found to be smashed with a heavy object

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Fear of a suspected psycho serial killer gripped Odisha’s second-biggest urban centre, Cuttack, following three murder cases which occurred within 24 hours.

The victims, all men, were aged over 40 years and the modus operandi was the same, which led the police and the general public to believe that the crimes were committed by a psychopath.

Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty visited the three murder spots on Wednesday. “All three persons have been killed in the same style. It is suspected to be the handiwork of a psycho killer who is targeting homeless people and destitutes in the city,” he said, reported The New Indian Express.

The first body was recovered from Ranihat Bridge on Tuesday morning. Two bodies, one from near SCB Medical College and another from neighbouring OMP market, were recovered on Wednesday morning.

The throats of all the three bodies were slit and their heads were found to be smashed with a heavy object, he said.

The mutilated bodies and untraced killers have sparked rumours of the involvement of a suspected 'stoneman' behind the murders.

The police has stepped up night patrolling and the homeless are being told to sleep at shelter homes, city DCP Akhileswar Singh said.

The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police also plans to take several steps to help prevent more such murders.

"We plan to take a few more initiatives like spreading awareness about the dangers of sleeping in the open," he said.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) has been alerted to remain vigilant as many sleep in the open in station areas.

The local police also requested the state government to increase the number of night shelters for the poor in the city.

On June 28, two persons were found to have been killed in the same manner in Paradip, 60 km from Cuttack.

The Cuttack murders come at a time when the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government in the state has found itself at the receiving end of criticism from the opposition on law and order, which has turned into a major headache for the state police.

Nine persons were killed by a suspected 'stoneman' in Berhampur, Odisha in 1998.

In all the incidents, including the recent one, the victims and their killers were unidentified.

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