Berhampur: A local court here on Wednesday sentenced life imprisonment to two persons, including a 27-year-old woman for their involvement in the twin murder at Chudialanji village under Ganjam district’s Jarada police station limits on Feb 18, 2024.Sangeeta Pani, additional district judge-cum-judge of Odisha Protection of Interest of Depositors (OPID), a designated court, sentenced G Devendra (27) and D Gunnama (27) of Chudialanjia for the murder of D Neelabeni (28) and her seven-year-old son D Rushi on Feb 19, 2024.On Feb 19, police had recovered the bodies of the mother and son duo from their house and sent them for post-mortem. The deceased’s husband, D Mohan Reddy, was not at home as he was working out of the country. The convicts were the relatives of the deceased woman.The court has pronounced the judgment after examining 39 witnesses, including the police, and verifying relevant documents of the incident,” said additional public prosecutor (APP) Santoshini Purohit. After registering a case at Jarada police station, police had arrested the convicts on Feb 26, 2024. They were in jail as their bail petition was rejected earlier, she said.Sources said the convicts had killed the mother and son duo because the deceased woman knew about the illicit relationship between them and once warned them to disclose their relationship to the husband of the convicted woman. Enraged, Devendra proposed to kill Neelabeni, which was supported by Gunnama. On Feb 18 evening, Gunnama visited the house of Neelabeni and secretly opened the lock of the door of the staircase to the terrace.Late at night, Devendra entered the deceased’s house from the backside and climbed to the terrace as per plan. First, he throttled the woman, while her son, sleeping near her, woke up and witnessed the incident. The accused also murdered the son by smothering him, fearing he might disclose the incident to others in the morning, sources said.
