Truck driver held for mowing down watchman, bid to dump body

Bhubaneswar: The Info Valley police here on Wednesday arrested a truck driver, identified as Ramachandra Lenka (45), for allegedly running over a watchman and trying to dispose of the body to destroy evidence.The arrest came after police recovered an unidentified body from a cashew forest in Info Valley late Monday night.“We had only two initial clues — sand traces on the body and tyre marks near the spot. Multiple teams were formed to crack the case and establish the victim’s identity. Photos of the deceased were circulated, and verification was carried out across sand mining ghats in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Through technical data, CCTV footage, human intelligence and spot investigation, we traced the movement of a truck in the area,” said police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh.During interrogation, Lenka confessed to his vehicle accidentally running over a man at a construction site in Sundarpada while unloading sand on Monday evening.“The deceased was identified as Gobardhan Yadav (47), a watchman at a nearby construction site. To destroy evidence, Lenka, with the help of two others, disposed of the body in the Info Valley area. Efforts are underway to arrest the two other men involved,” Singh added.