Four bodies found in Pakala forest linked to a missing persons case filed in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu

Police link four bodies found inside the Panapakam Reserve Forest in Pakala mandal of Tirupati district, with a missing persons case filed in Thanjavur.

The bodies were found on Sunday by some sheep rearers, who ventured into the forest to graze their cattle and smelt a foul smell and saw two bodies lying in the vicinity. The Forest department staff got the information and alerted the revenue officials, who, in turn, informed the Pakala police about the development. The police rushed to the spot, which is close to the Gadanki toll plaza on the Tirupati–Chittoor highway, and found the bodies of a man and a woman.

Upon screening the scores of complaints, the policemen investigating the case stumbled upon a ‘missing case’ filed in Tamil Nadu and talked to their counterparts.

The case pertains to Thanjavur, where a person had complained of his wife and two daughters going missing, and reportedly named his wife’s cousin as a suspect.

Digging deeper into the case, the Pakala police found the identification marks mentioned in the complaint matching with the two bodies, and concluded that those bodies could be of the missing woman and her second cousin. As the bodies were in a highly decomposed state, postmortem was conducted on the spot by bringing in the medical team, following which the bodies were buried at the same spot.

Meanwhile, Pakala Circle Inspector M. Sudarshan Prasad found two more bodies buried in the vicinity, which, when exhumed, were suspected to be those of the women’s two missing daughters.

“Postmortem is done on the two bodies and we will get the report in a week’s time,” Mr. Prasad told The Hindu.

The woman’s husband, who had filed the missing complaint, reached the spot on Tuesday (September 16) and appeared shattered on seeing the bodies. It is learnt that the family had incurred a debt of close to ₹1 crore, which was found to be a crucial piece of information in busting the case. However, the cops are yet to arrive at a conclusion if it was a case of homicide or suicide.