Man Handed Life Term For Killing Wife & Sister-In-Law In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: A man has been sentenced to life by a court in Bhubaneswar for killing his wife and sister-in-law in Sailashree Vihar area of the city in April 2022.

The Khurda Sessions Judge Nisith Nisank on Saturday awarded life imprisonment to convict Bijay Ketan Sethi under Section 302 of the IPC and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. In default of payment of fine, he had to spend one more year in jail.

The court has also awarded him 2 year jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 under Section 201 of the IPC for attempting to destroying evidence, after examining 17 witnesses and murder weapons.

Both sentences will run concurrently, said public prosecutor Sarada Chandra Samanta.

On April 21, 2022, Sethi, who worked as a mechanic at CTTC, killed his wife Gayatri and sister-in-law Saraswati with an axe and hide the bodies at their rented house at Housing Board Colony under Chandrasekharpur police limits. He then switched off their phones and intermittently visited his house. Bijay’s father-in-law realised that there was something amiss as he was not able to contact his daughters over the phone and the former also ignored his calls. Suspecting foul play, he reached his house on April 24 morning and prevented Bijay from fleeing the spot. He then asked him to open the door of the house and found his daughters lying in a pool of blood.

Police seized the bodies and arrested Bijay, who later confessed to the crime during interrogation.

Bijay married Gayatri in 2011. Gayatri’s younger sister Saraswati worked as a nurse at a private hospital in the city and used to visit her sister and brother-in-law’s place frequently.