Baripada: A 26-year-old pregnant woman died after her father allegedly kicked her in the abdomen and thrashed her with an wooden plank, suspecting her of having an affair, at Patharkhani village in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.
The deceased was identified as Sakara Tudu and her accused father as Jethu Tudu.
Sources said Sakara had returned to her parental home along with her 3-year-old daughter about a year ago after the death of her husband Mangal Murmu after prolonged illness. She was found to be five months pregnant on Friday. When Jethu questioned her on the matter, a heated argument broke out between them. In a fit of anger, the 60-year-old then kicked her in the abdomen and also hit her with a wooden plank several times. The victim sustained grievous injuries in the incident. When Jethu came to know about her death the following morning, he tried to suppress the matter by cremating her body but was stopped by villagers.
On being informed, police reached the spot along with the scientific team on Sunday morning. While Jethu was arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by his son Durga Tudu with Kaptipada police, the body of Sakara was handed over to the family after postmortem at Udala sub-divisional hospital.
Jethu was later produced before Udala SDJM, which rejected his bail plea and remanded him in judicial custody.
