PHULBANI: A 25-year-old woman was murdered by her brother after being gang-raped by four of his friends in Chakapada area of Kandhamal district. The horrific incident took place at Liagada village within Chakapada police limits on November 3. It came to light after police cracked the case and arrested the five accused including the woman’s elder brother Paresh Bhoi on Sunday.
The deceased was identified as Puspanjali Bhoi and the accused are Paresh and his friends Tuna Bhoi, Chandramani Bhoi, Bimala Nayak and Kanista Bhoi. Police said Puspanjali was staying with her father Bharat Bhoi while her brother and prime accused Paresh lived with his wife in another house in the same village. Puspanjali found out that Paresh was having an illicit relationship with his wife’s sister. She threatened him to tell others about it if he did not end the relationship with his sister-in-law.
Irked by his sister’s threats, Paresh hatched a plan to eliminate her. On the day of the incident, Puspanjali went to the nearby forest to collect Siali leaves. Paresh was there grazing his cows. Finding her alone, the brother called four of his friends to the forest and served them country liquor.
Under the influence of alcohol, the four accused gang-raped Puspanjali. When the woman fought back, Paresh strangulated her and assaulted her with an axe. Puspanjali died on the spot. The five accused then dumped her body in the forest and returned to the village, said Chakapada IIC Lalit Mohan Sagar.
The next day, Paresh filed a missing report in Chakapada police station. During investigation, police recovered the decomposed body of Puspanjali from the forest on November 7 and sent it for postmortem. The autopsy report revealed that the woman was gang-raped and then strangulated to death.
Basing on a tip off, police detained Chandramani on December 3 and during interrogation, he divulged the chilling details of the crime. Subsequently, police arrested the rest of the accused including Paresh and produced them in court on Monday, the IIC added.