Bhubaneswar: The Additional District Judge Court-II today sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his stepson at Mundasahi slum under Mancheswar police station limits of Bhubaneswar City on March 11, 2019.
One Lakhmi had reportedly married to Sanjay Singh in Rourkela in 2011 and their son Santosh was born in 2014, said Public Prosecutor Salil Pradhan adding that the couple, however, got separated following continuous family disputes between them.
Later, Lakhmi married to another man named Dasarati Tudu and the couple was living at Mundasahi slum of Bhubaneswar along with Santosh, informed the Public Prosecutor. However, Dasarati never wanted his stepson to live with them, and consequently he killed the boy by smashing his head against the wall of the house on March 11, 2019.
After committing the crime, Dasarati allegedly threatened Lakhmi not to reveal the matter to anyone, or else face the consequences. Lakhmi kept silence as she was seven months pregnant at that time when her second husband killed Santosh.
With the aim to hide his crime, Dasarati took Santosh to the Capital Hospital next morning for treatment. Even the Mancheswar police had registered a case of an unnatural death. However, the postmortem report of the boy revealed that he died due to grievous injuries on his head.
Suspecting something fishy, cops interrogated Lakhmi, who revealed that Tudu had killed Santosh. Based on her statement, cops arrested Tudu and forwarded him to the court after changing the unnatural death case to murder case.
While pronouncing an order in the case today, ADJ Bandana Kar, based on the statements of seven witnesses including Lakhmi, convicted Dasarati under Section 203 of the Indian Penal Code and imposed a fine of 20,000 on him.