Decomposed, charred body of missing man recovered from well in Patheri village

Four days after a 30-year-old tractor driver from Pathreri village in Bilaspur had gone missing, the police on Friday recovered his charred and decomposing body

Four days after a 30-year-old tractor driver from Pathreri village in Bilaspur had gone missing, the police on Friday recovered his charred and decomposing body from a 30-foot-deep well in the village. Police said as per the preliminary probe, the man was allegedly murdered over personal enmity.

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According to the police, the victim, Manoj Kumar, had taken his tractor to his place of employment in Tauru on Monday around 10am and did not return. His brother had filed a missing persons’ complaint at Bilaspur police station on at 8.46pm on Thursday, when they failed to locate him.

His wife, Sangeeta, said that she had last spoken to him on Monday evening, the day he went missing, around 6pm and during the brief conversation, he had told her that he would return home shortly.

She said that a man from their village told them that he had met Manoj on Monday evening and both of them had consumed liquor behind a liquor vend in Kalwari, which is about eight kilometres from his workplace in Tauru.

“After they had liquor, he claimed to have left for his house. We did not report the case earlier, assuming that he may have gone to a friend’s house or gone elsewhere with a relative. The police on Friday afternoon informed us that his burnt body was recovered from a well, about 500 metres from our house,” she said.

The tractor, however, was found parked at his workplace.

The police said that after a complaint was filed, the police conducted a combing operation and found the body. A post-mortem examination would be conducted on Saturday the police said.

Jai Prakash, station house officer (SHO), said that the man was possibly murdered, his body burnt and thrown in the well. “We are trying to identify the suspects. Personal enmity with some of his acquaintances is suspected to be the reason,” he said.

A case was registered under Section 346 (wrongful confinement in secret) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Bilaspur police station on Thursday. The police said that sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC would be added to the FIR.