Agartala, Oct. 21: The killing of a housewife in Vaishnavtilla village, near the ONGC complex in Agartala, has exposed the alleged involvement of a section of ONGC officers in a sex racket.

Though police have not arrested anyone, the prime accused, Jhuma Das, a domestic help and kingpin of the sex racket, said two officers of the ONGC had killed her sister-in-law and housewife, Ashalata.

On October 17, the villagers discovered Ashalata’s body on the Amtali-Khayerpur bypass road, close to her in-laws’ house.

The villagers, who knew that Ashalata was a victim of domestic violence, ransacked her in-laws’ house and beat up her husband, Sanjiv Das, sister-in-law Jhuma Das, father-in-law Premananda Das and mother-in-law Chanu Das.

Timely intervention by the police saved them. But all four were arrested later.

The police said they found that Jhuma, a widow who with her father, was working as domestic help in the nearby ONGC staff colony.

“She got involved with several ONGC officers. Soon her father’s house became a den for such activities,” said D.P. Roy, officer-in-charge of Amtoli police station.

“We have been told that Ashalata resisted continuous pressure from all the family members to work as sex worker,” Roy said.

On October 16, three senior ONGC officers went to Jhuma’s house for a drinking session.

Roy said according to the villagers, the officers left around 12.30am and in the morning, Ashalata’s body was found on the road.

“The post-mortem report said Ashalata died after she was hit in the head several times. But she was not raped. We are still interrogating Jhuma, Premananda and Sanjiv who are in police custody,” said Roy.

The ONGC officers, who were seeing entering the house on October 16 night, have not been arrested or detained.

The state women’s commission has called for exemplary punishment to the guilty.