Married woman found dead; family accuses husband of murder

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, Mar 13:

Family members of a 21-year-old woman of Patrapada on the outskirts of the city, who was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Wednesday evening, lodged an FIR at Khandagiri Police station on Thursday alleging that she had been killed by her husband.

The husband of the deceased woman Pratap Barik (34), however, claimed that his wife had committed suicide.

The deceased was identified as Debadarshini Barik alias Ranu, wife of Pratap, both staying in a rented room at Patrapada here.

According to Khandagiri police sources, Debadarshini, daughter of Bhramarbar Barik of Bantali village under Gop police limits in Puri district, got married to Pratap of Dhingar under Begunia police limits in Khurda district five years ago.

Police further said yesterday evening Pratap informed the family members of Ranu about the death of his wife stating that she had committed suicide by hanging herself in the room where they stayed.

Later local police, along with forensic team, reached the spot and found that her body was lying on the ground at their residence with injury marks on her body. “We are investigatiingthe matter after registering two cases from both the sides,” said Inspector-in-charge of Khandagiri police station Sanjeev Satpathy.

The local police have detained Pratap for interrogation.

Police informed that the couple got married after a love affair. Unhappy over their marriage for not getting parent consent, Ranu’s father didn’t keep any relation with them.

“We had started talking with the couple only a few months ago. Pratap had asked me for Rs 50,000 to build a house, but I could not give the money,” said the father of Ranu, adding, “It might be the reason behind the murder of my daughter.”

Ranu’s father said his daughter had several scars and injury marks on her body which clearly showed that she was killed. The claim of suicidal death that her husband Pratap had come up with was a ruse to cover up the murder mystery, he alleged.

Meanwhile, a case under section 302 of IPC has been registered against the husband of the deceased by the local police. Yesterday, police had registered an unidentified death case in the matter.