Bare bones

Over the next few hours, the police team dug out a few bones from the spot and sent it for forensic analysis. They say that prima facie it seemed that the killer had poured some corrosive substance on the body for its swift decomposition.

“My brother and I have always considered ourselves the most unfortunate children in the world. Our misfortune began 12 years ago, when our father died. And then, our mother disappeared. I thought I had been through it all. But it was painful to see that all that was left of my mother were a few bones — the acid that the killer poured on her body had eaten everything else away,” says Bijayani Mishra.

Mishra’s mother Jayashree Mishra was allegedly killed by Basanta Panda, Jayashree’s cousin’s husband. After being arrested on July 21, Panda allegedly confessed to his role in the murder, saying he killed her “in a fit of anger” over some money he owed her.

Mishra, a 29-year-old PhD candidate from JNU, recalls that in the days before she disappeared, her mother was busy with preparations for her eldest daughter’s wedding.

“My father, Murari Prasad Mishra, a postal department employee, died in 2007 of a heart condition, after which my mother, a homemaker, had to shoulder all responsibilities. So my elder sister’s upcoming marriage had brought us some happiness,” says Mishra.

Around that time, says Mishra, her mother asked Panda to return the lakh-and-a-half she had lent him. “She had been asking for the money for the last three months,” says Mishra.

From conversations she overheard between the accused and her mother, Mishra claims that Panda had promised to return half the money in cash and pay off the rest by making furniture that Bijayani’s elder sister could take to her new home after marriage.

On the morning of October 13, 2011, Jayashree had to go from Sambalpur to Raipur, 270 km away, to distribute cards to her relatives. The children had tried to persuade her to courier the cards, but the mother had refused, insisting that it was after all the first wedding in the family and “everyone had to be invited personally”. “She left on a bus to Raipur — that is the last time I saw her alive”, says Bijayani.

Later that October day, Mishra and her younger brother Bhabani Shankar called their relatives in Raipur to check if their mother had reached safely. She hadn’t. In hours, worry turned to panic.

“The next morning, we went to our local police station. But they only made a station diary entry and left it at that,” Mishra alleges, adding that they were convinced Panda was behind their mother’s disappearance. “As time went by, we kept returning to the police and they asked us about a possible relationship between Panda and our mother. Then inspector in charge, who has since retired, asked if they had run away together,” says Mishra.

“Police were fed this story by some of our neighbours, who took this opportunity to cast aspersions on my mother,” says Bhabani, 27, adding that he and his sister battled humiliation and apathy in their eight-year-long search for her mother.

Inspector Ramesh Chandra Dora, who is now investigating the case, said police are “probing all angles”.

Mishra, who was then studying for her BA in Political Science at Sambalpur University, went on to enrol as an MPhil candidate in JNU in 2013. She is now a PhD candidate at JNU’s Centre for the Study of Social Systems. Her brother Bhabani works with an IT firm in Sambalpur. The siblings had almost given up hope when the first breakthrough happened last December. A few neighbours had told Mishra that the accused had started visiting his house in Badasinghari again, especially during late hours, and leaving early in the morning. “There was a rumour he had fled to Haridwar after the murder,” she says.

Mishra says she decided there was no point returning to the local police station. She approached a “senior police officer in Sambalpur” in January and conveyed her story. That officer referred the matter to his “superior officer”, who invited her to Bhubaneswar, took notes on the case and “did not do a thing”. January turned to February and then March. First the elections and then cyclone Fani in early May gave police “handy excuses to sit on the case”, she says. Keeping up the pressure, Mishra says that on July 17, she wrote a letter to DGP R P Sharma. Within days, a mobile surveillance procedure was initiated and the phone of the accused’s son was monitored. “Every night, the son, who was at (Sambalpur’s) Jujomura block, would speak to someone late in the night. When questioned by police, he stated the caller was his girlfriend, but it soon became clear he was talking to his father,” says Sambalpur Sub Divisional Police Officer B S Udgata.

“Accused Basanta Panda was arrested on July 22 from Jujomora and charged under Sections of the IPC related to kidnapping, murder and criminal conspiracy, among others,” said Udgata, adding that Panda confessed to borrowing money from Jayashree and killing her. “The bones have been sent to the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology department of Burla’s Veer Surendra Sai of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR),” he added.

Police say Panda’s family has since moved out of their Jujomora home. “We have no evidence so far to indicate the role of Panda’s wife and son in the crime,” Udgata said.

Dora says that in addition to Panda’s confession, they have “multiple witnesses” who have confirmed that the alleged killer had borrowed money and was the last person to be seen with the victim when she was alive.
“It’s not over,” says Mishra, who now faces a court case and may have to make several trips between Delhi and Sambalpur. “But now the path to justice is hopefully clear.”