Bhubaneswar: Fear is looming in the crowded maze of lanes in Odisha’s Cuttack after the mutilated bodies of three homeless men were recovered from different locations within a span of 24 hours.

The police believe the brutal murders are the handiwork of some ‘psycho killer’ who is targeting homeless people sleeping on the streets.

While the hacked body of a middle-aged man was recovered in Ranihat area of Cuttack on Tuesday morning, two more bodies with similar injuries were recovered in Chauliaganj and Mangalabag areas of the city on Wednesday morning.

“These three murders seem to have been committed by the same person. The wounds on the three bodies appear to have been inflicted by a similar weapon. I think the three murders were committed after midnight, before 2am or 3am, when generally nobody is awake,” said the twin-city police commissioner Satyajit Mohanty.

A sharp and heavy weapon seems to have been used to murder the homeless people who were sleeping on the footpaths in the night. There are cut marks at several parts of the bodies, the police officials said.

“In each of these three cases, it seems the homeless people sleeping on the pavement have been targeted. Considering the nature of the murders, we can say this is the work of a psycho killer,” Mohanty said.

While little clue seems to have been left by the killer at the crime scenes, the police commissioner said investigators are busy gathering evidence and clues that will help nab the killer. “Crimes committed by psychopaths or serial killers are always challenging for the police,” added Mohanty.

In the Ranihat incident, the deceased was identified by the locals as a homeless daily-wage labourer named Kalia, who hailed from the neighbouring Dhenkanal district. “He was aged about 50 and used to earn his living from manual work. He was unable to work for the past few days after he developed a painful swelling in his feet,” said Rajendra Kumar Sahu, a local resident.

Even as a probe is on to identify the killer, the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police plans to take a number of steps to help prevent more such murders.

“We plan to take a few initiatives to protect the homeless people in Cuttack like spreading awareness among people sleeping in the open about the dangers they face. If possible, we will try to bring all homeless people to one place where they can sleep for the night in presence of policemen,” said Mohanty.

The police have also urged the social organisations like clubs, residents’ welfare associations and puja committees in Cuttack to provide police with some young volunteers who will help in the initiatives to guard the homeless people.

On July 1, the mutilated body of an unidentified man was recovered in Link Road area of Cuttack. There was no headway in the probe into that murder. Police officials say it is possible that it was the work of the killer who committed the latest three murders in the city.

(With inputs from Navesa Mohanty and Joy Mohanty)