The city police here have arrested an ex-army doctor on the charge of brutally killing his wife and cutting up her body into 300 pieces.
Retired Lt Col Dr Somnath Parida and his wife Ushasri, both senior citizens, had been residing in the house they owned in the Nayapalli area of the city, considered to be a posh locality of the Odisha capital. The elderly couple were living on their own: Their son and daughter stay abroad.
“We have already arrested the doctor and recovered the cut-up pieces of his wife’s body from his house. We have also seized the weapons used in the incident. A detailed investigation is on. The accused is being thoroughly interrogated,” said a senior Bhubaneswar police official involved in the investigation.
The incident has sent shockwaves in the entire city. The 71-year-old Parida allegedly killed Ushasri, 60, following a domestic quarrel on June 3. He reportedly bought a knife, a cutter and a chopper (the sharp heavy knife that butchers use to cut chicken and mutton) from a nearby market soon after, and chopped her body into pieces.
Subsequently, he packed the pieces in 22 small tin containers after soaking them in chemical preservatives and then dumped them into two big iron boxes kept inside the house.
The gruesome murder came to light late on Friday evening, when the couple’s daughter informed her uncle (Ushasri’s brother) Ranjan Samal, who also resides in the city, that her parents were not responding to her telephone calls. He rushed to the couple’s residence and knocked on their door but there was no response from inside.
Samal suspected something fishy, as a bad smell was also emanating from the house.
He immediately informed other relatives as well as the police. When the cops forced their entry into the house after breaking the main door, they reportedly found the ex-army doctor sleeping in his room with the air-conditioning on. The police then searched the house and found the two iron boxes containing the pieces of his wife’s body.
Police sources said that during investigation, the couple’s relatives described Parida as a hot-headed and short-tempered man, which was also confirmed by neighbours. Though domestic problems are suspected to be the principal motive behind the murder, the cops investigating in the incident are also looking into other angles, including possible extra-marital affairs.
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