Overview

• Local residents probing elephant-caused damage on July 28 grew suspicious of newly planted banana saplings and uncovered the decomposed bodies in Patra’s backyard.
• Police arrested pharmacist Debashis Patra on July 29 and have taken him into custody at Kuliana Police Station.
• The bodies of Sonali Dalai, 25, and her mother Somanti Dalai, 55, were exhumed and sent to Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.
• Authorities say Patra killed them around July 15, then reported their disappearance on July 16, and buried them under banana trees to mask soil disturbance.
• Investigators are examining blunt-force injuries and Patra’s fraught marital history, including a prior marriage and ongoing divorce suit, to determine his motive.