Mentally ill man axes wife to death, kills self

Patnagarh: In a shocking incident, a mentally challenged person allegedly hacked his wife to death with an axe before hanging himself in his house last night at Changharia village here under Larambha police limits in Bolangir district.

The body of Sukanath Bariha was found hanging while his wife Gitanjali's body was lying in a pool of blood in their bed room, police said.

"We got the information at around 4 am last night. Immediately we rushed to the spot and recovered the bodies from the locked house. Two separate cases have been registered. Investigation is on", Patnagarh SDPO Sesadeb Bariha said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Sukanath and his wife got into an altercation last midnight following which he locked the room from inside and hacked to death Gitanjali with an axe. Later, he also hanged himself ", he added.

The man was mentally retarded and was under treatment, the SDPO pointed out.

Family members said, "We all were asleep till we discovered that the doors and windows of their bed room were locked from inside. Sensing trouble, we broke open the door only to recover their bodies".