BHUBANESWAR: A 25-year-old woman and her mother were on Friday arrested by police in Nayagarh district on charges of killing the former's husband and burying the body inside the house over suspected
family dispute
. The accused lived in the same house with the body buried in the courtyard for three weeks before the decomposed corpse was exhumed by police in the early hours of Friday.
The accused, Jyotsna Rani Pradhan and her mother Dumuni Pradhan (55), are residents of Komanda village under Odagaon police station limits in Nayagarh district.
Jyotsna's husband, whose body was exhumed, was identified as Prakash Naik (37), a daily-wager.
According to police, Prakash was staying at his wife's house but went missing some days back. Naik's father Gokul reached Jyotsna's place on Thursday and inquired about his son. When Jyotsna said Prakash has been untraceable for several days, Gokul approached the Odagaon police for help.
"When we reached Jyotsna's house and inquired about her husband, she gave vague replies. We came to know that the couple had a strained relationship. Upon further questioning, Jyotsna and her mother revealed that they had killed Prakash on January 23 night and buried the body in the courtyard inside the house to destroy evidence. We exhumed Prakash's decomposed body from the courtyard," Odagaon police station's inspector in-charge Rashmi Ranjan Sahoo said.
Police said Dumuni confessed to having smashed Prakash's head with a pestle while he was sleeping. Jyotsna had allegedly helped to gag his mouth. The two women told police that Prakash did not fight back as he was under the influence of alcohol. Jyotsna's two minor children - three-year-old-son and five-year-old daughter - were asleep in another room when the incident took place. The mother and her daughter dug a pit in the courtyard and buried the body. "We are trying to find out whether anyone else assisted in executing the crime. They did not have any remorse for having killed Prakash," said Sahoo.
English (US) ·