Odisha: Man found dead after returning home to celebrate wife's birthday, family alleges murder

Balasore (Odisha), Jul 18 (PTI) Investigation was underway into the death of a 34-year-old engineer in Odisha's Balasore district after his family alleged that he was murdered by his wife with the help of her lover, police said on Saturday. The deceased, Rashmiranjan Sethi, a native of Jagatsinghpur district, was working as an engineer in Cuttack. He had returned to his wife's rented accommodation in Balasore on the night of July 16 to celebrate her birthday. His wife, a government engineer posted in Balasore, claimed that she found his body hanging from the ceiling of the house. According to a complaint lodged by the deceased's brother, Prithivi Kumar Sethi, Rashmiranjan had travelled to Balasore to surprise his wife on her birthday. While the wife claimed that her husband died by suicide, his family alleged that he was murdered. In the complaint, Prithivi alleged that the couple had been quarrelling frequently over his wife's alleged extramarital relationship and claimed the death was a planned murder. "We received a phone call from my brother's wife late on July 16 informing us that he had died by suicide. We believe it was a planned murder," he alleged. Rashmiranjan was taken to the Balasore District Headquarters Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Police initially registered a case of unnatural death. After receiving the family's complaint, investigators recorded the statement of the deceased's wife, who was present in the house when the incident occurred. Sahadevkhunta police station inspector-in-charge Alok Kumar Behera said police were awaiting the post-mortem report to ascertain the exact cause of death. "We are probing the case from different angles and have not ruled out the possibility of murder," the officer said. PTI COR AAM AAM SOM