Retired Army doc gets life imprisonment

A court gave life imprisonment on Tuesday to a 78-year-old retired Army doctor for murdering his wife and chopping the body into 300 pieces in Bhubaneswar in 2013.

Khurda District and Sessions Court judge Loknath Mohapatra sentenced Somanath Parida after convicting him for the murder, government pleader R R Barhma said.

Parida's conviction was based on circumstantial evidence as there were no eyewitnesses.

He had killed his 62-year-old wife Ushashree Parida on June 3, 2013.

He was arrested by Nayapally police station on June 21.

The government pleader said the incident of murder came to light after almost a fortnight following the victim's daughter, who stays abroad, raised suspicion as she failed to talk to her mother over the phone.

Though she insisted to talk to her mother, her father did not give her the phone.

The daughter later sent a relative to the house in IRC village area to enquire.

The relative, in turn, informed the police after suspecting that the woman could have been murdered.

Later the police found the body, chopped into 300 pieces, and kept in a separate steel containers.

The police had also seized a chopper, a knife and two cutters from the spot.

"I am innocent and did not kill my wife," he said outside the court while being taken to judicial custody.