Verdict still awaited in ghastly murder of Ushasree

Bhubaneswar: A verdict is still awaited in the case of the ghastly murder of Ushasree Parida by her doctor husband at her residence in N-1 IRC Village under Nayapalli police station June 3, 2013.
Her accused husband, Somnath Parida, a 73-year-old retired Army doctor, was alleged to have chopped her body into 300 pieces and stuffed them in 22 steel boxes, typically used by army men. The trial in the case at the District Sessions Court is still going on and it has heard the statements of around 20 witnesses so far.
Now, it is in its last stage as the statements of the remaining two witnesses are scheduled to be recorded April 30, 2019 which will be the final hearing of the case.
The gruesome murder came to light when the brother of the deceased, Ranjan Kumar Samal, and his son went to Somnath’s residence to check why Ushasree was not picking up her phone despite being called several times by her relatives.
They later lodged a police complaint when the accused did not open the door or let them into the house. Police swung into action after a case was registered on the basis of the complaint lodged by Samal.
Nayapalli police arrested Parida and started investigation. The police submitted a 70-page charge sheet against the doctor October 17, 2013.
In the charge sheet, police claimed that Somnath had killed his wife by hitting her head with a long steel torch. Later, according to police version, he chopped her body into around 300 pieces and immersed them in preservatives. He wrapped them in polythene bags some of which were put in casseroles. Forensic experts, who had visited the spot for examination of evidence at that time, informed the media that the lung bones of Ushasree, packed in a polythene bag, were preserved in chemicals. He concealed the body parts in his bathroom.
The sleuths interrogated 22 witnesses, including the doctor’s daughter, son, neighbours and owners of Omfed stalls in front of his home at N-1 IRC Village.
However, the police failed to establish the motive behind the murder of his wife with whom he had more than 42 years of conjugal relationship.
The reasons put forth by the police were that the couple was staying alone as their son and daughter have well settled in Dubai and also the couple had almost no interaction with the neighbours.
Meanwhile, according to the public prosecutor of the case, Biren Kumar Panda, “The accused, who is a rude and arrogant person, has stuck to the fact that Ushasree died accidentally by falling down on the floor. He kept the body in the boxes after chopping them as she had told him while alive to bury her body at different sacred places of the country including Shirdi. The delay was also caused by the accused as he had changed several defence lawyers at regular intervals in the past six years.”
The public prosecutor also said that there were frequent quarrels between Parida and Ushasree after his daughter refused to give some money to the accused in the murder case.