Kujang (Jagatsinghpur): Police Tuesday cracked the sensational murder case of a widow and her three minor children who were found floating in Mahanadi river near a temple at Jagannathpur village under this block in Jagatsinghpur district May 10.
Investigation revealed the widow was killed by her own father to grab her ex-gratia money of Rs 3 lakh that she had got after her husband’s death. The accused did not even back off from killing his three grandchildren.
The accused was Akshay Sethy while the deceased were his daughter, Mamali Sethy, widow of Biswambhar Sethy, and her minor daughters Varsha (9), Lipsa (8) and son Guna (2). A case of murder was registered and the accused was produced in court. He was later remanded in judicial custody after the court rejected his bail plea.
According to sources, the Sethy’s son-in-law Biswambhar had died in a road mishap. After the death of her husband, the widow had got a compensation of Rs 3 lakh from the company her husband was associated with.
Since then, Sethy had his intention to grab the compensation amount, but the widow wanted to save it as a fixed deposit for her three children. Infuriated, he hatched a plan to eliminate the whole family.
As per plan, he first called the two minor girls to the river side and strangled them to death with a towel before dumping their body in the river. Later, he called Mamali that the two girls had drowned in the river. When, the woman reached their with her toddler son, he also killed them in a similar manner.
A villager noticed the bodies floating in the river while bathing and alerted others in Jagannathpur before passing on the information to the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force, the fire personnel and the police.
The police sent the bodies to the local hospital for autopsy. Mamali’s brother has filed a complaint with the local police alleging that the family members were murdered to usurp their property.
