Odisha shocker: Woman allegedly kills 2-yr old step son, hangs herself in Cuttack

Cuttack: In a shocking incident, a woman allegedly ended her life by hanging herself after killing her minor step-son in Odisha’s Cuttack district here today. The incident was reported from Srirampur locality under Madhupatna police limits. The deceased were identified as Shilpi Khuntia and her two-year-old step-son Shivan.  Family dispute is suspected to have led to the crime.

As per reports, Shilpi was the second wife of Santosh Khuntia. Shivan was Santosh’s son from his first marriage. While Santosh was an engineer, Shilpi was account admin of Fastfix Automotive and earlier a lecturer at Satyasai Engineering College, Balasore. She had studied civil engineering from Synergy Institute of Engineering and Technology. Sources said Shilpi and her husband were going through marital discord for a while.

On Monday, Shilpi was found hanging while Shivan was found with his throat slit. While the exact cause of death is yet to be established, preliminary investigation suggests that conflict in the marital life of the deceased triggered her to take the extreme step. The couple was reportedly not getting along well. Earlier, a case too had been filed with the police after the duo had a fight but the matter had been resolved with a compromise. While families from both sides alleged that the other party was responsible for the crime, Shilpi’s Facebook profile, which a display picture reading “I quit. Because that was the only option. Until…”, hints that she was under extreme mental duress.

Police meanwhile has seized both the bodies for postmortem. A case has been registered and further investigation ins underway.