‘Jilted youth’ knives married woman to death in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Even as the gruesome murder of a married woman in broad daylight in Bhimtangi area of Capital city Monday shook the conscience of citizens, grapevines have it that the ghastly act is the fallout of a failed love affair.

If sources are to be believed, a failed love affair between the accused Jagannath Pradhan and the victim Priyanka Priaydarshini alias Rinki resulted in the heartrending incident that shocked the city Monday. Some claimed that both the accused and the deceased were in a relationship since their college days.

However, fate had other plans as Rinki married Rakesh Kumar Sahu in 2015. Pradhan had also tried to meet Priyanka after her marriage despite strong objections from the lady, sources claimed.

Recently, Rinki had gone to her paternal village to attend one of her relatives’ funeral ceremony a few days back. She reportedly had a fight with Pradhan during her stay in the village.

A frustrated Pradhan, in order to take revenge on the deceased, hatched a plan to kill Priyanka along with her three-year-old son. He had also decided to end his own life too after killing the mother-son duo.

As per the plan, Pradhan reached Bhubaneswar Monday with two large knives and a pesticide bottle which were seized from the spot by police along with the handwritten suicide note.

He first slit the throat of Priyanka and later cut his own wrist. He also tried to show the ghastly act of killing Priyanka to her husband through a WhatsApp video call, which was declined by Rakesh. Later, Pradhan sent an image of murdered Priyanka to Rakesh.

One of the locals revealed that they had seen the couple standing outside their home along with their child around 9am. Rakesh was leaving for his office then. The person saw PCR vans and police vans parked outside their residence a few hours later. The locals later came to know about the murder.

A neighbour, who is a colleague of Rakesh, informed the media that the couple had no past discord.

Meanwhile, some others claimed to have seen Pradhan coming to Rakesh’s house during his absence.

The deceased’s father-in-law, who was crestfallen after the incident, informed Orissa POST that he had no knowledge about the accused and why at all the man killed his daughter-in-law. He also thanked God for saving his grandson’s life from the killer. He demanded capital punishment for the accused, who has ruined his son’s family.

Her 3-year-old son too was the target

A handwritten suicide note seized by the police from the crime scene revealed about accused Jagannath Pradhan’s evil design to kill the deceased’s innocent child too.

The accused has mentioned in the suicide note about killing both Priyanka and her three-year-old son. Fortunately, the child was saved as he was playing in the landowner’s house upstairs when Pradhan executed the preplanned murder of Priyanka.

The Commissionerate Police said, “A note which was written by accused Jagannath Pradhan has also been seized from the spot which seems to have been prepared much before the murder was executed as he has mentioned that he had planned to kill both Priyanka and her son. However, the kid survived as he was playing in the landlord’s house during the occurrence of the crime.”