Cuttack: A local court here Tuesday sentenced a man to seven years in jail and slapped a penalty of Rs 10,000 on him after convicting him for his wife’s murder.
Additional district and sessions judge (III) Bandana Kar found Debi Prasad Tripathy, a resident of Sriram Nagar under Badambadi police limits here, guilty of strangulating his wife Pragnya Paramita Mishra to death after recording the statements of at least 21 witnesses of the prosecution and four from the convict. Non-payment of the penalty would invite an additional six months’ jail term, the court ruled.
According to the case details, Debi had married Pragnya of Jaydev Vihar in Bhubaneswar May 12, 2013. While Debi was working as a manager in a private bank at Jholasahi here, Pragnya worked at the Irrigation department in Bhubaneswar.
Things were rosy until a couple of months when the couple began quarrelling over petty issues. It was January 26, 2015 when the duo returned from a trip to Vaishno Devi. On the fateful day, the duo picked up a quarrel and in a fit of rage Debi strangulated Pragnya to death. Soon after, Debi surrendered before the Badambadi police who booked Debi under Sections 498A, 304B, 302 and 34 of the IPC.
On the other hand, a dowry death case was also registered with the Mahila police here against Debi and his mother Manorama Tripathy.
Additional public prosecutor Bijay Kumar Mohanty presented the case.