Family Of Five In Odisha Murdered In Scientific Manner, Food Spiked; Were More People Involved?

Bhubaneswar: While police are suspecting involvement of more people in the ghastly murder of five members of a family, the wife of the accused, Siba Sahu, on Wednesday debunked this theory and termed it as ‘revenge killing’

“Altercation broke out after my husband asked his elder brother’s family for some keys. They thrashed him, and he retaliated. They had been torturing us for the last 10-12 years,” said Siba’s wife, almost echoing what her husband had said in a video message before surrendering at Balichandrapur police station on Tuesday.

The quintuple murder took place at Kusupur village under Mahanga police limits in Cuttack district around 3 am.

His wife further said that he locked her inside a room when he tried to stop him. “There was no other person involved except my husband. He then unlocked the door and also threatened to kill me too if I did not leave immediately,” she said, adding that she did not witness the gory act.

Siba and his wife had been residing separately in a rented house at Nanpur under Balichandrapur police limits, around five km away from Kusupur, following a long-drawn battle over a patch of land.

Alekh Sahu (46), his Rashmi Rekha (41), their daughter Smruti Sandhya (19) and sons Smruti Sai (18) and Smruti Saurav (16) were found in a pool of blood after IIC of Mahanga police station Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, Salepur SDPO Bimal Barik with a scientific team broke open the door in the presence of the local executive magistrate.

Alekh’s in-laws, however, said that it was difficult to believe that only one person was involved in the murder. “Apart from the land, there were disputes over a rape case. For truth to come out, the investigation should be handed over to CBI,” they added.

Locals had also suspected the involvement of more persons. “How was he able to hack five people without any resistance? None of us heard anyone scream,” said a local.

Based on the preliminary investigation, IG of Police (central range) Narasingha Bhol on Tuesday told mediapersons that all five members of the family died due to profuse bleeding while asleep. The accused had cut the wrist veins and it is being suspected that he might have spiked their food.  “While postmortem reports are awaited, the accused will be thoroughly interrogated to ascertain the involvement of any other person,” Bhol had said.

Police sources further said that Siba had chopped the body of Alekh and Rashmi using a katuri (sharp weapon), which has been seized.