Kendrapara: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Chief Secretary (CS) and the Director General of Odisha Police (DGP) to look into the matter of a man being lodged in jail and facing trial in the fake murder case of his wife, a report said Thursday. The rights body has directed the CS and the DGP to take exemplary action against the policemen responsible for his plight since the woman who was alleged to be killed by her husband is alive with her children. The victim was identified as Abhaya Sutar, a native of Chaulia village under Patkura police limits in Kendrapara district. Abhaya has already spent seven years in jail as an under-trial prisoner for the murder of his wife Mili, a crime which he did not commit.
He is currently out after being granted bail by a designated court. The NHRC passed the order over a petition filed by rights activist and advocate Radhakanta Tripathy, December 30, last year. In the petition, Tripathy stated that a villager Abhaya Sutar of Chaulia village under Patkura police limits of Kendrapara district was falsely implicated by the police for murdering his wife and remanded to judicial custody for the offense which he had never committed.
Police took action after Abhaya’s father-in-law Prahllad Moharana of Samagola village under Kujang police limits in Jagatsinghpur district lodged a murder complaint at Patkura police station stating that his daughter was killed by her husband over dowry, May 14, 2013. Mili went missing from home the next day after she informed her father that she is being tortured by her in-laws for dowry, February 22. Moharana in his complaint alleged that Abhaya had killed his wife to have second marriage with another woman. Police registered a case and arrested Abhaya and produced him in the court. Abhaya informed police that he did not kill his wife but failed to get any relief.
As a result, Abhaya had to spend seven years in jail as an under-trial prisoner. Later, a team led by Patkura IIC Sujit Pradhan rescued Mili from Pipli in the Puri district in February 2020. Mili informed that she had eloped with her lover to Maharashtra and was staying there for seven years and recorded her statement before the police that she was being tortured for dowry by Abhaya’s family members.