Post News Network
Paralakhemundi, March 20: Garabandha police in Gajapati district Friday exhumed the bodies of a couple from Lesara. Edesa Sabar and his wife Sunita were hacked to death over a month ago.
Police also arrested four persons in this connection. Edesa and Sunita were natives of Talamunda under Rayagada block, but used to stay in Lesara for the last few years.
Prima facie, police suspected that they were killed over sorcery. According to the police, a group of people of Lesara had suspicion that Edesa had been
practising sorcery and had planned to eliminate him.
February 18, four persons of the village waylaid Edesa and his wife while they were returning from their farmland after the day’s work. They had a spat with Edesa over the issue. Soon, the situation turned ugly and the villagers hacked him to death with a sharp-edged weapon.
Sunita, who was present at the spot, threatened the assailants that she would lodge a complaint with the police. Enraged, the four also hacked her to death. Following this, the attackers buried the bodies in the farmland of the couple.
Brunda, one of the sons of the couple, who was staying in Dhalasundha, had come to Lesara a few days after the incident. As he did not find his parents, he informed his elder brother Seemanchal, who was staying in Vishakhapatnam about the matter.
March 14, when Brunda had again gone to Lesara, he spotted four persons torching something on the farmland belonging to his family.
When he enquired about it the four told Brunda that they would kill and bury him in the same manner as they had done to his parents. Brunda immediately
informed Seemanchal about the development, following which the latter
returned to the village and lodged a complaint with Garabandh police against the four.
Acting on the complaint, police registered a case and arrested the four. A police team went to Lesara Friday and exhumed the bodies of the couple from the farmland and sent them for post-mortem.
The accused were Friday forwarded to a court while further investigation into the case is on.