Berhampur/Balipara: In a bone-chilling incident, police Wednesday arrested an elderly couple on charge of murdering their daughter in a pre-planned way over a love affair.
The incident was witnessed at Kaukhat under Sadar police limits in Ganjam district. According to the case diary, the incident occurred August 4, 2016. Acting on a tip-off, police recovered the girl’s body from a canal near Kaukhat. A case of unnatural death was registered and the body sent for post-mortem.
After preliminary investigation, police identified the girl as Santosini Jena (18) of Goutami village. The matter came to light after police detained the girl’s parents who confessed to have committed the crime. They said they murdered their only daughter and subsequently dumped her body near the canal.
According to police, Santosini’s parents fixed her marriage with Santosh Nayak of Berhampur. An engagement ceremony was held wherein the couple exchanged rings. Santosh’s parents liked Santosini and accepted her as their daughter-in-law. As per the village’s tradition, they offered a gold necklace to her.
However, Santosini called Santosh and pleaded with him to cancel the marriage as she was in love with another youth. On learning the matter, Santosh’s parents approached Santosini and took back the gold ring and the necklace and cancelled the marriage in the village panchayat.
The incident was too much for Santosini’s parents. Her father Soro Jena (50) and mother Renu Jena (45) felt bad by Santosini’s act and began torturing her. They beat her up mercilessly. They held her captive and locked her inside a room for a week without food and water. The couple bludgeoned Santosini to death August 1. They cut her body parts into pieces with a kitchen knife and tucked it inside a bag. Later, they dumped it near Goutami canal.
Later, locals spotted the sack and alerted police who recovered the body from the canal August 4. The body was sent for post-mortem to MKCG Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem.
We have detained the couple for further interrogation, IIC B K Khuntia said. It may be noted that a similar incident had happened in the same village. A man along with his son had murdered his daughter while a couple in Purusottampur killed their daughter over honour-killing. Similarly, a couple in Kanisi killed two siblings.
This is the fourth honour killing in Ganjam district, police said. PNN
