Sambalpur: An elderly woman and her daughter were charred to death while sleeping at Hatapada near Maneswar weekly market under Sadar police station limits in Odisha’s Sambalpur on Tuesday night.
The deceased have been identified as Snehalata Dikshit (98) and Sairendri Dikshit (62), a retired teacher.
While the blaze was initially attributed to a short circuit, younger daughter of the deceased, Indrani Purohit, later alleged that it was not a mishap but they were murdered and the bodies then set on fire by her brother and his sons, who stayed on the ground floor of the two-storey structure, over some land dispute and for property.
The mother-daughter duo stayed on the first floor of the house. The woman was found dead in the bed room and the daughter in the kitchen.
“We received a call between 10-10.30 pm. When police reached the spot, the body of the daughter was still burning. The gas burner were also lit. The body of the woman’s body was found in another body. A scientific team arrived this morning to collect evidence. The incident is being invested from all angles,” Sadar SDPO Toofan Bag told the media.