Police in Odisha’s Ganjam district arrested a 25-year-old man on Thursday for allegedly killing his wife and two-year-old daughter by releasing a venomous snake in their room.
The incident occurred on October 7 in Adheigaon village of Ganjam district under Kabisurya nagar police station area.
The police said “The accused identified as K Ganesh Patra and his wife, K Basanti Patra, 23 were having marital disputes.
According to Ganjam SP Jagmohan Meena “Ganesh had married Basanti in 2020. They also had a two-year-old daughter named Debasmita. Because of the marital disputes between the two, Basanti had filled a complaint against her husband under The Dowry Prohibition Act. However, both of them were staying together for three months before the incident.”
After that the accused had already made a plan to kill his wife. On, September 26, Ganesh issued a SIM card in his father’s name and used it call several snake charmers in his locality to help him get a poisonous snake.
“The accused claimed he needed the snake to worship at a Lord Shiva Temple,” said SP Meena.
He took the snake home in a plastic jar and hid it. On the night of 7 October, the accused locked his wife and daughter in one room and released the venomous cobra in it with an intention of having it bite his wife.
The next morning Ganesh started to create ruckus in the locality and the neighbors and the complainant- his father-in law arrived at the spot. The deceased were rushed to the nearest government hospital where the doctor declared them brought dead.
According to the police, the postmortem report of the victims confirms the reason of their death was snake bite. But the police started their investigation based on wife’s father’s complaint where he had accused him of killing his daughter.
“The accused was arrested a month after the incident due to some delay in gathering evidence against him,” said SP. Further adding that during the course of investigation the accused, Ganesh denied the allegation of him murdering his family and claimed that the snake might have come into the room on its own but eventually accepted that he did kill his wife.
