Ushashree Parida was battered to death in cold blood before her body was dismembered and stored in tiffin boxes and trunks, allegedly by her husband retired army doctor Somnath Parida, police on Tuesday said after receiving the post mortem report.
The report submitted by the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Department of SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack has revealed that the 62-year-old woman was either bludgeoned on the head by a heavy object or had her head ferociously knocked against something hard like a wall or pillar.
“The cause of death has been attributed to the multiple injuries on the head, that are clearly homicidal in nature. There are at least six serious injury marks on the scalp, which are directly responsible for her death, “ DCP Nitinjit Singh said.
According to the sources in the Forensics Medicine department, which conducted the post mortem on the body that was brought to them in small pieces, the victim was beaten up with heavy and blunt objects in an utter inhumanly way. Apart from the skull, there were injury marks in other parts of the body too.
Once she had succumbed, her body was chopped into pieces in a systematic manner. The Department has kept samples of hair, teeth and bones that were requisitioned by police for conduct of DNA tests to establish her identity as the dismembered remains were recovered in extreme state of decomposition after 19 days.
The report has debunked the claims of Somnath that his wife had committed suicide and he had chopped her body to make it easy for him to take it to Shirdi for cremation, as per her last wishes. It is now for the investigators to establish how Ushashree was killed and recover the weapons used in the crime. The police had earlier recovered saws, surgical knives and other sharp weapons used to chop the victim’s body. Meanwhile, the remains of Ushashree were handed over to her son Dr Lalit Parida and other kin and the cremation was done at Cuttack.