Odisha: Man held for killing wife & daughter using venomous snake

Bhubaneswar : A 25-year-old man in Odisha's Ganjam district has been arrested for allegedly using a venomous snake to bite his wife and daughter, an official said on Thursday, adding both died after they were bitten by the reptile.

The arrested individual has been identified as K. Ganesh Patra. The incident took place in Kabisuryanagar area of Ganjam district. Ganesh used to work at a construction company in Himachal Pradesh.

He came to his native village on a vacation four months ago and he did not return to the workplace since then. His wife, Basanti Patra along with her daughter, was sleeping in a separate room in the night of October 6. In the morning on October 7, Ganesh called his neighbours saying that a snake had entered his house and bitten the mother-daughter duo.

The villagers killed the snake and rushed the deceased persons to a nearby hospital where doctors declared them dead. Based on a complaint filed by Ganesh, police started an investigation into the matter after registering a case of unnatural death.

"However, Basanti's father who also resides in the same village lodged a complaint with us on October 12 alleging that her daughter might have been killed by Ganesh through the snake. Meanwhile, we also received the post mortem report clearly indicating that the death of the mother-daughter duo had occurred during late October 6 night. This raised suspicion that how could the reptile remain in the same room till morning several hours after biting the duo," said Pravat Kumar Sahu, the Inspector In-charge of Kabisuryanagar police.

Police later initiated a fresh probe and began maintaining vigilance on Ganesh's movements. "We questioned several snake charmers in the locality and were shocked to find that Ganesh had brought a venomous reptile from one of the snake charmers on the pretext of some special puja ritual at his residence on October 6.

"He later let the snake into the room where the mother-daughter duo is sleeping. We also came to know that Ganesh often picked up quarrels with his wife who had filed a case against him too," added Sahu. The accused was on Thursday presented at the court that sent him to 14 days' judicial custody.