How a retired postmaster, a schoolmate and e-court records in Odisha helped solve a 1995 murder case

Trace an accused in a murder case 28 years later: Special police team uses clues from retired postmaster, revenue officers, e-court records & old schoolmate to arrest him in Odisha.

Clues provided by a retired postmaster, revenue officers, e-court records, and an old schoolmate helped a special police team to trace an accused in a murder case to Odisha, twenty-eight years after it was committed.

He had escaped from the city after stabbing his mother-in-law to death and assaulting his wife and her brother in Thillai Ganga Nagar. Prem Anand Sinha, Additional Commissioner of Police, South, said the police, through sustained efforts and a long pursuit, were able to arrest the accused, Harihara Patta Joshi, now aged 53, who had evaded arrest since 1995.

Joshi, originally from Berhampur in Ganjam district, Odisha, had come to the city for work in 1993, and got into a relationship with Indira, a resident of Thillai Ganga Nagar, Nanganallur. They married on July 13, 1994. However, due to a domestic quarrel, Indira went to her mother Rama’s house and filed for divorce. Joshi, angered by this, planned to murder his wife and her family, the police said. On August 9, 1995, Joshi barged into Rama’s home and stabbed Indira and her brother Karthick. The siblings fled from Joshi, but he cornered Rama and murdered her. He then left the city.

Deepak Siwach, Deputy Commissioner of Police, St. Thomas Mount, said police teams were sent to Ganjam in 1996, 2001, and 2006 to arrest Joshi, but he kept evading them. A non-bailable warrant was also pending against him. Eventually, a special team was formed to trace him, but they only had a 28-year-old black and white photograph of Joshi and his native address initially.

The team reached a non-descript police station in Berhampur and a local police constable was deputed to assist them. However, they hit a snag as the address turned out to be a dead end and no one was able to identify Joshi with the old photograph. The local police suggested contacting a retired postmaster, who said a brahmin family with the surname of ‘Patta Joshi’ had lived at the address.

When the team went to the place the retired postmaster mentioned, they met a classmate of Joshi, who told them that the family owned a house but it was vacant. They then learnt through revenue officials that one of Joshi’s sisters had filed a civil case over the house. Analysing e-court entries, the team traced the address of Joshi, who had been cited as a respondent.

K. Kannan, the sub-inspector of police who led the team, said: “Upon learning that we were looking for him, Joshi switched off his mobile phone and hid at a friend’s house in the extended area of Berhampur. We waited near the house for three days, and his wife visited the house assuming that we had left the town. Finally, with the help of local police and by tracing his wife’s mobile phone, our team nabbed him.”