Elderly couple sentenced to life for murdering daughter-in-law

An 83-year-old man and his 60-year-old spouse were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Odisha's Kendrapara district for the murder of their daughter-in-law and attempt to kill the son.
Kendrapara District and Sessions Judge Bijoy Ketan Mohanty, while convicting the couple yesterday, pronounced life imprisonment on the basis of circumstantial evidence of the crime committed on February 12, 2010 in Fakirabad village under Derabish police station jurisdiction.
According to prosecution, the convicts - Panu Behera and Bimba Behera - had hacked to death daughter-in-law Rina Behera by a sharp edged axe. The couple had also launched a murderous assault on the son. However he had survived the attack. Family feud had led to the murder.

14 witnesses were cross-examined during the course of the trial. Laxmipriya, daughter of the convicted duo, was an eyewitness and she had narrated the sequence of the crime, said prosecution counsel, Bhimsen Bhuyan.