Bhubaneswar: Suspended police constable Deepak Rout has confessed to killing his second wife, traffic constable Subhamitra Sahoo, over Rs 20 lakh, Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan informed on Wednesday.
Subhamitra had demanded the amount for organising a grand social ceremony to formally announce their marriage and this had led to frequent quarrels between them. The duo had a low-key court marriage in July last year. .
The Minister further stated that Rout has also been booked in a fresh case pertaining to the death of his first wife, Aparna Priyadarshini, three years back. He is suspected to have plotted to eliminate her for insurance payout. “The truck which is said to be involved in the hit-and-run case was in Rourkela at the time of the accident,” said Harichandan.
“Who was in power in the state in 2022? Why was an attempt made to shield the accused and manipulate the investigation?” he asked, targeting the previous BJD government.
The Minister assured a thorough reinvestigation into the matter.
The accident took place on March 17, 2022, when Aparna, a revenue inspector, died after allegedly being hit by a speeding truck near Khuntuni. Rout had even provided the registration number of a truck but during investigation, involvement of the same vehicle could not be established by the investigators and no arrests were made.
The investigation into the the missing case of Subhamitra, whom he strangled her to death inside his car on the evening of September 6 and then buried the body a day later near Ghatagaon in Keonjhar, brought the focus back on the accidental death of Aparna and her younger sister, Rojalin Rout submitted a complaint to commissioner of police S Dev Datt Singh alleging that Rout had possibly killed her to receive the insurance policy payout of Rs 1.5 crore.
Police later got to know that Subhamitra was also insured for Rs 1.2 crore, which pointed at a possible foul play in Aparana’s death.
On September 18, a case was registered against Rout under Section 302 of IPC since the accident had taken place before the new criminal laws came into force and a DSP rank officer was entrusted with its investigation.