The accused had hid the snake in a plastic jar in his home. (Representative Image)
Though prime facie suggested that it might be a case of snakebite, later a probe was launched based on the complaint of Basanti’s father against Ganesh
A man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly killing his wife and two-year-old daughter by releasing a cobra snake into their bedroom in Odisha’s Ganjam.
The incident took place on October 7 in the Adheibara village under Ganjam’s Kabisuryanagar police limits.
The accused — identified as 25-year-old K Ganesh Patra — had marital differences with his wife K Basanti Patra. Police investigation has revealed that it might be the reason behind the incident, an Indian Express report said.
Ganjam SP Jagmohan Meena said that the couple had been married since 2020 and had a baby girl later. “Due to their marital strife, Basanti had filed a complaint against her husband under The Dowry Prohibition Act,” Meena noted. However, the Ganjam SP said that the couple had again been living together for the last three months before the incident.
Even after living together, the accused reportedly planned on killing his wife. Probably the marital strife and the temptation to collect Rs 8 lakh of ex-gratia amount — Rs 4 lakh each — for snakebite victims may have led him to hatch this plan, a ToI report said.
Ganesh had procured a SIM card in his father’s name on September 26 and used that number to call multiple snake charmers in his locality. Ganesh was trying to acquire a poisonous snake for his plan.
According to the Ganjam SP, Ganesh had claimed that he needed the snake for worshipping at a Lord Shiva temple.
A snake charmer — identified as Basanta Acharya — rescue a cobra from someone’s house and gave it to the accused in a plastic jar on October 6.
Ganesh took the snake home and hid it somewhere. Investigations reveal that on the intervening night of October 6 and 7, the accused slept in the front room of the house while his wife and their two-year-old daughter were sleeping in the middle room.
At about 2 am, Ganesh shut the middle room doors and released the cobra into their room with the intention of the snake biting his wife.
Early on October 7, Ganesh raised a hue and cry in the locality which led to his neighbours — along with Basanti’s father — gathering at the spot. Following this, his wife and daughter were rushed to a nearby government hospital, where they were declared brought dead.
Postmortem revealed that the cause of death for both of them was snake bite, a police officer said.
While prima facie suggested it to be case of snake bite, the police later launched an investigation into the matter based on Basanti’s father’s complaint. He accused Ganesh of killing his daughter.
Being the only witness, the snake charmer was not implicated in the case, sources said, adding that he was also unaware of Ganesh’s murder plan.
“We are examining if any action can be taken against him under forest laws,” a police officer was quoted as saying.
Police also said that they arrested the accused after over a month of the incident “due to the delay in gathering evidence”, adding that he “confessed to the crime”.
Source: News18