Post News Network
Digapahandi/Chikiti, Dec 6: A couple was killed by their nephew reportedly over a property dispute at Sindhikhal village under Digapahandi block in Ganjam district late Saturday night, police said Sunday.
The victims were identified as Rama Krushna Pradhan (65) and his wife Damayanti Pradhan.
K Nuagaon police Sunday started an investigation and detained accused Sapan Pradhan, who confessed to his crime during interrogation.
A forensic squad collected the blood samples of the victims and sent them for examination. The bodies were recovered from under a cot in the house of the accused while a lathi, a billhook and a bloodstained napkin were seized from the rooftop of his house.
According to police, the incident occurred when Damayanti was returning home after watching a television sop at a neighbour’s house Saturday night while her husband and two granddaughters were asleep at home. Sapan, who resides in another house in the neighbourhood, called her in on the pretext of showing her new paddy.
As Damayanti went in, Sapan bolted the door from inside and killed her. He snatched her gold earrings and nose rings, Sapan revealed during police interrogation.
As Damayanti did not return home till late in the night, Rama Krushna went out looking for her.
He went inside his nephew’s house and found his wife lying dead in a pool of blood. As he raised an alarm, Sapan knocked him down with a lathi before strangulating him to death.
Preliminary investigation indicates property dispute as the reason behind the double murder, additional superintendent of police Sashi Bhusan Satapathy said.
Police registered a case over a complaint lodged by Gobind Pradhan, the brother-in-law of Rama Krushna and handed over the bodies to the bereaved family after post-mortem at MKCG Medical College and Hospital. PNN