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

Bhubaneswar: Nearly two weeks after the discovery of Hayathun Nisha's severed body parts in a suitcase aboard the Chennai-Delhi Tamil Nadu Express, a Chennai police team has initiated extensive searches across Odisha to locate a couple suspected in her murder and disposal. The victim, a 38-year-old woman from Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district, was employed at a private firm in Chennai and resided with a pair - Manik Uddin Laskar from Assam and Bhagabati Majhi from Odisha.

According to a senior police officer, authorities believe the couple may have fled to Odisha. The probe was initiated after railway staff at Agra station discovered a red trolley bag containing the decomposed and decapitated remains on August 5 in the rear general compartment of Train no. 12621. The Agra railway police registered a case, confirming the remains belonged to Nisha.

Following leads from Agra, Chennai Central station and the Crime Intelligence Branch of the Railway Protection Force scanned CCTV footage from Platform 4, revealing a man and a woman boarding the train around 10 pm on August 3 with the trolley bag. The suspects subsequently alighted from the train. On Friday, investigators traced the couple's rented residence in Guduvanchery, Chennai, where more body parts were allegedly found inside a large box.

Authorities are now probing the circumstances surrounding Nisha's death and the motive behind the gruesome killing.