In a gruesome incident, a man hacked his wife to death with an axe and then committed suicide at Changaria village in the Patnagarh area of Balangir district on Wednesday night.
According to reports, Gitanjali Bariha was initially thrashed by her husband Sukant Bariha, who was mentally-deranged, with a stick following an exchange of words between the couple. He then hacked her with axe leading to her death on the spot.
He soon later hanged himself with a rope and committed suicide.
While the woman’s body was found lying in a pool of blood in the house on Thursday morning, her husband’s body was found hanging.
On being informed, police reached the spot, seized the bodies for postmortem and started investigation.
“Two separate cases have been registered. The matter is under investigation. Primary probe reveals that the man was mentally-retarded and undergoing treatment,” said Patnagarh SDPO Sesadeb Bariha.