Sambalpur: A couple was axed to death by an unidentified person late on Saturday night at Rairakhol’s Pandirishila village in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
The district police was informed about the mishap by personnel of a beat house located close to Pandirishila village. The house of the deceased couple is located around 500 metres from the village limits and there is no mobile or phone network there, the police said.
Preliminary investigation revealed the brother-in-law of the deceased woman was upset about his wife’s (the latter’s sister) employment at a brick kiln in a neighbouring state.
“He held the couple responsible behind his wife’s employment. We have learnt that the woman had gone without informing her husband for which he was annoyed with the couple,” a Pandirishila village local said.
It is very likely that the man broke into the house late at night and killed the couple by attacking them with an axe, he added.
Rairakhol police have registered a case in this connection and sent the bodies of the deceased for autopsy. A search has been launched for the suspect, the police said.