Police Crack Two Sisters’ Death Case; Arrest Parents, Detain Son-In-Law

Paralakhemundi: A day after the recovery of the bodies of two sisters from a well on the outskirts of Chheligada village under R. Udayagiri police limits in Odisha’s Gajapati district, police on Saturday arrested the parents and detained their son-in-law.

Father of the deceased Pramod Achari had told the police that his daughters had committed suicide after their marriage proposals were rejected. But the police, suspicious of his statement, brought him to the village on Sunday evening where he admitted to his crime.

As stated by Pramod, who runs a stationery shop in the village, he has five daughters of which the eldest B. Santoshi Achari recently committed suicide due to dowry torture while his second daughter Meena is married and stays at Golanthara in Ganjam district and the fourth daughter Priya is married to Ganesh Sahu of another caste and stays at Mahendragarh in Gajapati district.

The family had received a marriage proposal for Swapna. However, the family of the would-be bridegroom rejected it and instead cast aspersion on the girl’s character.

Dejected by the rejection and fearing public shame, they decided to eliminate Swapna and younger daughter, Kiran.

As told by Pramod, he and his wife called up the two daughters on the night of September 28 and gave each of them a glass of poison. The two daughters, realising the mental state of their parents, drank the poison and died. After their death, he threw the bodies of his two daughters into the village well. To destroy the evidence, he threw the poison bottle and other articles on the side of the volleyball court near his house.

However, the police, suspecting the veracity in the statement of Pramod, have begun an investigation to ascertain whether he had engaged some people to murder his two daughters.

In course of the investigation, police found Ganesh’s involvement in breaking the marriage proposal of Swapna as he had informed the family members of the would-be bridegroom about her relationship with several youths. Based on the audio clipping of the conversation from his mobile phone, police began interrogating him.