Elderly couple commits suicide after family dispute in Odisha

CUTTACK: An elderly couple allegedly died by suicide on Saturday night after consuming poison at Maniabandh village in Badamba over a family dispute regarding inter-caste marriage of their daughter.

Police identified the deceased as 64-year-old Nityananda Mohapatra and his wife Shantilata (54). The couple has two sons and a daughter who is a divorcee. While the elder son is married, their 35-year-old daughter recently got into an inter-caste marriage with a person she worked with at a nearby shop, police sources said.

While her decision was strongly opposed by their relatives, the situation worsened after Nityananda and Shantilata visited her on Saturday. When the couple returned home, their sons reportedly picked up a quarrel over the matter.

Following the heated exchange, the elder son left for his workplace at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh along with his wife, while the younger one went to Bhubaneswar as he had an interview to attend there.

Experiencing acute mental pressure after the altercation, the couple allegedly consumed poison. On Sunday morning, when Nityananda did not turn up at his flour mill, locals went to his house and found him and Shantilata lying dead, police sources added. On receiving information, the cops reached the spot and sent the bodies to Badamba community health centre for postmortem. Maniabandh IIC Kadambini Parida said an unnatural death case was registered and further investigation is underway.