Patnaik donates Rs 1 lakh to 3-year-old girl who witnessed mother's murder in Odisha

In his letter to the chief minister, the BJD president had said, The visual of a three-year-old child crying beside her mothers body has shocked the conscience of Odisha. The deceased, identified as Puja Swain, was sitting on a dharna in front of her in-laws house demanding rights for her daughter after her husband, identified as Chintu Gouda, abandoned them.

A day after expressing deep anguish over the brutal murder of a pregnant woman in his Hinjili assembly segment in Odisha's Ganjam district, BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Thursday donated Rs 1 lakh to her surviving daughter, who witnessed the ghastly killing. A BJD delegation led by former MP Chandrasekhar Sahu visited the Utkal Balashram in Berhampur city, where the child is currently residing after the death of her mother. The financial assistance was handed to the authorities of the Balashram, and that the amount should be kept as a fixed deposit in the name of the child. Patnaik, on Wednesday, wrote a letter to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and sought his personal intervention into the gruesome murder of the 21-year-old pregnant woman who was sitting on a dharna in front of her in-laws' house at Kharida village under Hinjili police station area on Tuesday. In his letter to the chief minister, the BJD president had said, ''The visual of a three-year-old child crying beside her mother's body has shocked the conscience of Odisha.'' The deceased, identified as Puja Swain, was sitting on a dharna in front of her in-laws' house demanding rights for her daughter after her husband, identified as Chintu Gouda, abandoned them. The woman had a love marriage with Gouda and was staying in Puri. She was abandoned by her husband as Puja demanded to return to her in-laws' house in Ganjam district. Meanwhile, the police have arrested two persons, including the minor brother-in-law of Puja, on charge of murder.