Bhubaneswar: Police are still groping in the dark about the murder of a 46-year-old man, whose half-burnt body was found near the Kuakhai riverbed on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday morning.

On Sunday, the cops interrogated a 26-year-old woman who featured in a series of obscene videos with the deceased, identified as Unmaya Padhi. However, they are still to find any clues that would link the woman to the murder.

The cops picked up the woman and her male friend from the city on Saturday night while they were trying to flee to Calcutta. The woman has vehemently denied any involvement in the murder.

"The woman told us that she was not in touch with Padhi after she lodged a formal complaint with Kharavela Nagar police station over the video shot by him. She told us that she was forced to seek the help of police after Padhi started threatening her with making the videos go viral on social media," said a cop.

The officer said Kharavela Nagar police had arrested the deceased in March last year in connection with the video featuring him and the woman, an employee of an educational organisation run by him. The police said Padhi used to run the franchise of a Calcutta-based organisation for implementing educational programmes of various state governments.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the deceased was stabbed multiple times and his mouth was filled with concrete chips. A pair of shoes belonging to a woman had also been seized from the spot. That apart, the cops had also recovered a gutted laptop and a kitchen knife from the location.

The woman, on the other hand, pleaded with the cops to stop the circulation of the videos. Around a dozen obscene videos of the woman and the deceased have gone viral on social media following the murder of Padhi. The woman, during her interrogation, raised suspicion that a third person might have got the videos from the deceased.

The police are also clueless about how the videos were shared on social media after the man's death. Padhi's elder brother had identified the man in the video as his younger brother.

Sharing intimate videos on social media has emerged as a major concern for the police in Odisha. The cops registered a whopping 184 cases related to circulation of obscene photographs and videos in 2017.

Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said they were interrogating the woman and his male friend. "We are trying to ascertain the woman's location on the day of the murder and analysing his call details," said Bhoi.