Bhubaneswar: A court in Bhubaneswar has sentenced a 26-year-old pharmacist and his girlfriend to life imprisonment for the 2024 murder of his wife, who was injected with a lethal overdose of anaesthetic drugs.
Second Additional Sessions Judge Bandana Kar convicted Pradyumna Kumar and Rojita, also known as Roji or Rosy Patra, while acquitting their alleged accomplice Ejita Bhuyan due to insufficient evidence. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of the convicts and directed the District Legal Services Authority to arrange appropriate compensation for the family of the deceased, Subhashree Nayak.Subhashree, 26, died on October 28, 2024.
Bharatpur police arrested Pradyumna, Rojita and Ejita two days later after postmortem findings ruled out the initial claim of suicide and confirmed death by anaesthetic overdose. It was established that Pradyumna, a native of Kendrapada who worked as a pharmacist at a private hospital, had married Subhashree in 2020 following a love relationship. Marital discord soon emerged, with police saying he subjected her to harassment and physical assault, prompting her to live largely at her parental home in BJB Nagar for several months.
During this period Pradyumna developed relationships with Ejita and Rojita, both of whom were employed as nursing or paramedic staff at hospitals in the city. He allegedly told the women that his wife was torturing him, and the three conspired to eliminate her.
On October 27, 2024, Pradyumna persuaded Subhashree to leave her parents’ house and accompany him. The following day he took her to Rojita’s residence, where the group overpowered her and forcibly administered high doses of Midazolam, a sedative commonly used before medical procedures, along with potassium chloride. The combination caused her death.
In an attempt to conceal the crime, the three then took Subhashree’s body to Capital Hospital and claimed she had tried to take her own life. Doctors declared her brought dead. Police, already suspicious, launched a detailed probe after the autopsy results confirmed the overdose of anaesthetic agents.
Additional Public Prosecutor Sai Ranjan Mahanandia told the court that the evidence presented established the guilt of Pradyumna and Rojita beyond reasonable doubt, leading to the life sentences nearly two years after the killing.