Balod (Chhattisgarh): Chhattisgarh police have found bones in digging taken up at Karkabhat village under Balod police station area limits after a man in a 2021 case confessed to having killed his friend 20 years ago and buried him there. The recovered bones have been sent for autopsy and a case has been registered, a police official said.
According to police sources, Tikam Koliyara, a resident of Karkabhat in 2021 confessed to having killed his friend Chhabeshwar Goyal in 2003 after Goyal tried to physically harass Tikam's girlfriend. Tikam confessed that in 2003 both Tikam and Chhabeshwar were good friends. They both were 18-years-old. But Chhabeshwar did not have good intentions towards Tikam's then-girlfriend who is now his wife. When Tikam came to know about this, he hit Chhabeshwar with a rod resulting in his death. After killing Chhabeshwar, Tikam buried the dead body in the dead of the night.
In 2021, after Tikam confessed to the crime, police began an investigation but the probe remained incomplete as Tikam was declared mentally unstable. But Chhabeshwar's father Jagdish Goyal insisted on re-investigating the case. He filed several applications and the case was reopened in 2023. As the probe began, the police found bones and some torn clothes and one rupee coin near the dam on April 19. The digging was done on the orders of Sub- Divisional Magistrate (SDM), police sources added.
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Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Harish Rathore said, "The recovered samples were sent to forensic lab for autopsy on April 20. The autopsy reports will make it clear whether these bones belong to a human being or not. After this gets confirmed, the bones will be sent for DNA testing. The investigation is being done on the basis of inputs provided by Tikam who confessed to having killed Chhabeshwar Goyal in 2003 and buried his dead body. Further action will be taken after the autopsy reports come."
