‘They may have fled to Odisha’: Mystery deepens in Tamil Nadu Express murder case

A video grab of the couple carrying the suitcase to Chennai Central railway station

Bhubaneswar: Over a fortnight after the severed body parts of a Jagatsinghpur woman were found stuffed inside a suitcase aboard Chennai-Delhi Tamil Nadu Express near Agra in Uttar Pradesh, a team of Chennai police on Sunday launched extensive searches in different parts of Odisha in pursuit of a couple suspected of the murder and disposing of the mutilated remains.The severed body parts of victim Hayathun Nisha (38) of Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district were first found on Aug 5. Follow‑up searches by Agra Govt Railway Police led investigators to her rented residence at Guduvanchery in Chennai, where more body parts were recovered last Friday.A senior state police officer said the woman was employed at a private firm in Chennai and lived in a rented house with a couple — Manik Uddin Laskar from Assam and Bhagabati Majhi from Odisha. “Believing they may have fled to Odisha, Chennai police have sought our cooperation to track them down,” the senior police officer said.The probe started after the railway staff at Agra station discovered a red trolley bag containing the decomposed and beheaded body parts in the rear general compartment of Train no. 12621 on Aug 5. The Agra railway police registered a case, later confirming that the remains were of Nisha.Acting on leads from Agra, the Govt Railway Police at Chennai Central station and Crime Intelligence Branch of the Railway Protection Force scanned CCTV camera footage from Platform 4. The footage showed a man and a woman boarding the Tamil Nadu Express on Aug 3 around 10 pm, carrying a trolley bag resembling the one in which the body parts were found. The suspects later got down from the train.On Friday, investigators traced the suspects’ rented accommodation on Masuthi Street in Chennai’s Guduvanchery and alerted the local police. A search of the premises allegedly uncovered more body parts stored inside a large box.“Guduvanchery police are probing to determine the circumstances of Nisha’s death and establish the motive behind the gruesome killing,” the police officer said.