The Bhubaneswar police arrested a retired Army doctor who, allegedly chopped off his 62-year-old wife into as many as 300 pieces in a fit of rage and after the police recovered the dismembered body parts from his house in the posh Nayapalli area of the Odisha capital.

 

The 72-year-old Somnath Parida, a former Lt Col in the Army, was held Friday night after the cops found the sliced body parts, apparently that of his wife Ushashri, which were kept in metal boxes in his house, the police said.

The cops did not reveal the motive of the murder as the culprit is still being questioned. 

 

The murder is believed to have taken place a fortnight ago. But it came to light only on Friday after Parida's brother-in-law visited the house along with other relatives to inquire about his sister who did not respond to repeated phone calls from their children staying abroad. As Parida did not open the door, they opened a window and peeped inside when they smelt stench emanating from the house, police said. Then they called up the police, who swung into action and found the source of the stink coming out of two tin boxes which contained small steel containers with human parts preserved inside, they said.

 

"Body parts were preserved with chemicals in 22 steel containers and kept in two big boxes," Achyutananda Baliarsingh, assistant director of state forensic science labs, who visited the site along with a team of experts, told reporters. Stating that Parida himself showed them the places where body parts were kept, he said some body parts kept in a polythene bag were also recovered from a bathroom.

The body parts were seized and sent to the laboratory for tests, Baliarsingh said.

Senior police officials who visited the spot declined to divulge details and said a clear picture would emerge after investigating and thorough interrogation of Parida. The residence had been sealed off and senior police officials with forensic experts examined the building thoroughly.