Police on Thursday arrested the husband of the woman, whose decomposed body had been retrieved from their own house septic tank at Gamhadia here on Tuesday. Detained by the police all these days as a suspect, Radhakant Pradhan was arrested on murder charges after it was prima facie established that he is involved in the death of his wife Sabita, police said.
“Investigations by scientific officers and the police so far have prima facie established the involvement of the husband in the murder of the woman,” said Twin City Commissioner of Police RP Sharma suspecting that the husband had killed the woman, and in an attempt to wipe out evidence, dumped her body in the septic tank.
Sharma said while the postmortem report was awaited, the inquest report revealed injuries on the head and injury marks on the neck of the victim and blood stains have also been recovered from the kitchen of Radhakant’s house.
Meanwhile, a fresh FIR filed by the relatives of the victim on Thursday alleged that Sabita was raped before she was murdered and there were more persons involved in the incident. Police, however, refused to make any comments about it, saying they were waiting for the autopsy report.
Police had fished out Sabita’s body from the tank more than nine days after she was reported to have gone missing. Incidentally, Sabita’s brother had earlier complained about the dowry torture and had told the police that the whereabouts of his sister were not known since November 22.
Married about six years ago, the couple had a very estranged relationship and was quarrelling regularly, which had been corroborated by the statements given by neighbours and the domestic help of their house.