A man late on Sunday night allegedly drowned his wife and two daughters to death in a pond following a quarrel at Dhobeigada village under the Rajnagar police station in Kendrapada district.
The police on Monday rushed to the village and recovered the bodies and sent them for autopsy and arrested the accused and his younger brother. The police are yet to confirm the motive behind the murder. Meanwhile, the family members of the deceased woman alleged that accused Nirmal Rout committed the crime for more dowries.
According to neighbours, Nirmal, who had been torturing his wife for dowry, had a a quarrel with her on Sunday night over saving money in the name of their two children. He demanded money from his in-laws’ house while his wife opposed it expressing inability of her paternal family. The neighbours too alleged that Nirmal had been inflicting mental and physical torture on his wife since she gave birth to girl children. Nirmal drowned his wife and two babies in a nearby pond with the help of his brother Ratnakar Rout. later, they fished out the body of the woman and hanged her in the room.
locals traced the bodies of two babies floating in the pond on Monday morning and informed police. later, the body of the woman was found hanging in a room. Shocked villagers beat up the accused duo black and blue before handing them over to the police.