Bhubaneswar: A court in Odisha capital here has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his wife and sister-in-law in Sailashree Vihar area of the city two years ago.

The Khurda Sessions Judge Nisith Nisank awarded life imprisonment to convict Bijaya Ketan Sethi under Section 302 of the IPC. The court also slapped a penalty of Rs 10,000 on him.

Non-payment of the penalty amount will invite additional jail term of one year for the convict, said the court.

Besides, the court awarded two years of rigorous imprisonment to Bijaya and imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on him under Section 201 of the IPC.

As per the case records, Bijaya, who was working as a mechanic at CTTC, Bhubaneswar, had killed his wife Gayatri and her younger sister Saraswati, a staff nurse at KIIMS hospital, with an axe at his rented house at Housing Board Colony in Sailashree Vihar area of the city on April 21, 2022.

The accused had hidden the bodies in his house.

The incident came to the fore on April 24, 2022 when Bijaya’s father-in-law Sudam Sethi confronted him regarding the mysterious disappearance of the two sisters.

On being informed, Chandrasekharpur police reached the spot and recovered the bodies from the rented house of Bijaya.

The police had registered a case in this regard and arrested accused Bijaya. The accused had confessed to the crime during interrogation.

The court has convicted Bijaya after examining 17 witnesses and other evidence to the case. Both the sentences will run concurrently, said public prosecutor Sarada Chandra Samanta.