Bodies of woman, daughter cremated four days after death in Odisha

KENDRAPARA: The family members of  a 46-year-old woman from Manapada village within Rajnagar police limits, who along with her daughter was allegedly murdered, conducted their last rites four days after their death after officials assured them to arrest the accused soon. 

While the body of Pramila Nath (46), who had gone missing on September 19, was found floating in Hansua river near the village the next day, the body of her daughter, Satyapriya Nath (21) was recovered from a pond at nearby Gobardhanpur village. 

Satyapriya’s postmortem report revealed she was pregnant. Pramila’s husband Patitapaban Nath resides in Babara village. The villagers alleged Satyapriya was raped and murdered by her maternal uncle’s son. They said Pramila was aware of the former’s pregnancy due to which the mother-daughter duo were murdered. 

The villagers staged a road blockade demanding the arrest of the accused and agreed to cremate their bodies after Rajnagar tehsilsar Bholanath Sethi along with BDO Mandharadhar Mahalik reached the village and assured the culprits will be arrested soon. 

Anirudha Sethi, one of the protestors said the last rites of the mother-daughter duo were performed after police and block officials assured the villagers to arrest the other accused in the matter soon. He said the officials also agreed to conduct the DNA test of the prime accused to match it with the foetus found in Satyapriya’s body.

Meanwhile, basing on the autopsy reports, police arrested Satyapriya’s close relative Sanjay Behera. Rajnagar IIC Tapan Nayak said Satyapriya was seven months pregnant at the time of her death.