
- An Odisha man murdered his wife, her mother and tried to eliminate evidence by planting trees over the bodies
- Patra allegedly crushed both women to death with a stone while they were asleep
- Patra took both bodies to the lemon orchard behind his house, buried them and planted banana trees at the site
A man in Odisha's Mayurbhanj murdered his wife and her mother and tried to eliminate evidence by planting banana trees over the bodies he buried in his garden.
While the exact motive behind the murder is yet to be ascertained, initial police probe found that the couple were facing issues and 23-year-old Sonali Dalal's mother Sumati Dalal had brought her daughter back to the former's husband Debashish Patra's house on July 12 in an effort of reconciliation.
On July 19, Patra allegedly crushed both women to death with a stone while they were asleep after an incident of domestic violence went too far.
At a time when it was dark and raining, Patra took both bodies to the lemon orchard behind his house and buried them. He then planted banana trees at the site to avoid suspicion.
Patra then went to the police and filed a missing persons police complaint, while he told his in-laws that Sonali and Sumati had left from Mayurbhanj after dropping the couple's son.
As Patra and his son continued to live without much worry, the villagers grew suspicious. They then noticed that that the soil in his lemon orchard was loose and fresh banana trees were planted there. On being informed of the same, police questioned Patra, who confessed to the crime and led police to the burial spot.
The decomposed bodies were found in the garden and sent for post-mortem.
With inputs from Kumar Devv
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