Mother of Odisha judge alleges son murdered

The 49-year-old additional district judge-rank judicial officer, who was officiating as a special judge of Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) court, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his quarters in Cuttack on Friday afternoon

Bhubaneswar: The mother of the Pocso court judge in Odisha, who was found hanging in his official residence in Cuttack, alleged on Saturday that he did not die by suicide but was murdered by his wife and brother-in-law, police said.

In her complaint, the judge’s 75-year-old mother alleged that her son had on several occasions confided to her that he was mentally and physically tortured by his wife and brother-in-law

“They were not allowing him to come to our house and even preventing him from communicating with our family,” his mother alleged in her written complaint lodged at Markatnagar police station. “My son is gone, who is going to feed me at this age? I had brought up my son. They didn’t even show me his body.”

The 49-year-old additional district judge-rank judicial officer, who was officiating as a special judge of Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) court, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his quarters in Cuttack on Friday afternoon. There were injury marks on his neck, police said.

The judge had taken a two-day leave and later extended it for one more day on Friday.

In her complaint, the judge’s 75-year-old mother alleged that her son had on several occasions confided to her that he was mentally and physically tortured by his wife and brother-in-law. She urged the police to thoroughly investigate the case while another relative of the judge demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“We have registered an unnatural death case yesterday (on Friday). An investigation is on and we are taking statements of the judge’s brother, mother and in-laws,” said Inspector Beauty Mohanty, in-charge Markatnagar police station. “We are waiting for the post-mortem report.”

The judge’s mother also alleged that her son was cremated at Swargadwar in Puri against the tradition and customs of the Vaishnav sect, in which the dead are buried.

“In our sect, the dead are buried but his wife and her brother got him cremated at Puri. This is against our tradition,” she said. “The distance between our village and Cuttack is not much. They could have brought him here. I could have seen my son for one last time. I suspect some foul play in the matter.”

On Friday, there was an altercation between the judge’s brother, who came from Bengaluru on getting the news, and his wife. His brother wanted to take his mortal remains to their ancestral home in Jajpur district.

“His wife misbehaved with us,” he said. “We suspect a foul play. We want justice.”

The wife of the judge refused to comment when HT reached out to her.