BHUBANESWAR: A Bhubaneswar court on Friday handed life imprisonment to the accused in the 2014 sensational triple murder in capital’s Khandagiri area.
The Additional Sessions Judge Court in Bhubaneswar awarded the sentence to Sneha Shawkhar Samal and imposed a fine of `10,000 on him. Around 26 witnesses were examined and 64 documents exhibited during the trial of the case, said additional public prosecutor, Chandrakanta Das.
Samal, who owned a medicine shop in Kanan Vihar area, had brutally stabbed to death orthopaedic surgeon Atulya Meher (55), house caretaker Prasant Behera (40) and his 15-year-old son Munu Behera.
The convict, carrying a bouquet of flowers, had visited Meher’s house to meet him on October 14, 2014. After entering the house, he went to the servant’s quarter where Behera lived with his family. He took out a knife hidden in the bouquet and stabbed Behera several times.
When Behera’s wife Runu and elder son Munu came to his rescue, they too were attacked. On hearing the screams, Meher, who resided on the first floor, rushed to the spot. Samal had then stabbed the doctor in a similar manner.
Samal had reportedly revealed before the investigators that he was displeased with Dr Meher’s fees when he had taken his daughter to him for treatment. Behera’s wife, who had survived the brutal assault, was later given a job of a home guard and is currently posted at Khandagiri police station. She is staying with her younger son in a quarter on the premises of the police station.