Odisha: A couple who killed their kid is sentenced to life in jail

A couple was given life in jail by a special court in Balasore on Friday for the suspected 2022 murder of their physically challenged 14-year-old son.

Ganesh Jena (45) and his second wife Pratima Jena (36), also known as Puja of Chandamari Padiya, were found guilty by Judge Biswajit Das. In addition, the court fined them Rs 5,000 per, with a further six months in prison if they don’t pay the punishment.

According to public prosecutor Pranab Kumar Panda, the couple was detained by authorities on August 4, 2022, after the boy was killed and his corpse was dumped in a pond. The victim’s parents, who leased a separate property, discovered their grandson missing from home, which led to the discovery of the occurrence. The youngster used to reside close to his grandparents’ home with his father and stepmother.

After Shantilata Jena, the deceased’s grandmother, filed a complaint at the local police station on August 5, 2022, the incident was later looked into by the authorities. According to the investigation, the accused couple committed the crime because their kid was reliant on them and unable to take care of himself.

Section 302 of the IPC had been used to file proceedings against the couple by the Sahadevkhunta police. Panda said that the pair received their punishment after 16 witnesses and 16 papers were carefully examined.