Odisha court sentences couple to life for killing 15-year-old pregnant daughter

Bhubaneswar: A fast-track special court in Odisha’s Jajpur district on Saturday awarded life sentence to a couple for killing their 15-year-old pregnant daughter nine years ago.

The court also slapped a penalty of ₹10,000 on the couple.

The victim, a Class X student in a local school in Laxminarayanpur village of Jajpur, was in a relationship with a married man and was in constant touch with him despite opposition from her parents. In February 2016, when her parents found out that she was pregnant, they beat her to death, burnt her body using kerosene and dumped the ashes at nearby Kharasrota river to destroy evidence.

Their neighbour lodged a first information report (FIR) as she had heard the girl’s cries on the night of the murder.

During the investigation, the couple confessed that they killed their daughter because she refused to reveal the identity of the man responsible for her pregnancy. Police had recovered ashes and charred bone fragments from the couple’s orchard, which were confirmed to be human remains through DNA testing.