3 persons get life imprisonment for 2014 murder

Bhubaneswar: The gory murder of a money lender, whose body was chopped into 40 pieces by his three friends in Dhauli area in 2014, resulted in conviction, with a court here sentencing the trio to life imprisonment on Wednesday.The 3rd additional district and sessions judge, Himanshu Sekhar Mallick, pronounced the sentence, convicting Sanjay Khuntia, Sagar Prusty and Bharat Sahoo of the murder of Krutibas Parija, 34, and destruction of evidence. The convicts are in their 50s.The crime, committed on Nov 2, 2014, came to light two days later when severed body parts, including a head, were discovered on the banks of the Daya river. Police investigation led by then Dhauli inspector-in-charge Debi Prasad Das confirmed the victim’s identity as Parija, a resident of Sarakantara on the city’s outskirts.According to police, the motive was revenge. “Parija lent Rs 2 lakh to Khuntia, who failed to repay on time. When Parija threatened him, Khuntia conspired with Prusty and Sahoo to eliminate him,” a senior police officer said.On the evening of Nov 2, Khuntia lured Parija to a vacant house in Dumuduma Housing Board Colony. There, Sahoo struck Parija with an iron rod while the others restrained him, and Khuntia slit his throat.

“The trio later dismembered the body and packed the remains into multiple bags, disposing of them at different locations to mislead investigators. They also abandoned Parija’s motorcycle at Cuttack railway station and discarded his mobile phone near his fiancée’s house in Hansapal,” the officer said. Police pieced together the crime through forensic evidence and witness accounts, leading to the conviction and sentencing.