Dhenkanal, Feb. 18: Police today solved the case of four family members being murdered on February 1 at Joranda.

The only surviving member of the family, a 22-year-old youth, is alleged to have killed his father, mother, brother and a sister. The motive is to get rid of the financial burden of the family. The police seized an axe and a sharp weapon that have allegedly been used in the crime. The clothes that the accused had worn at the time of committing the offence were also seized.

On February 2, Dhenkanal police found four members of the family — Makardwaja Behera, 54, his wife Sukanti Behera, 50, daughter Triphala, 19, and younger son Bikash murdered in their house at Nuasahi village in Joranda area. While three bodies were dumped in a well in the compound, Bikash’s body was recovered from the house.

The accused, Rakesh, who was working in a watch shop, used to stay in a mess in Dhenkanal town.

Dhenkanal superintendent of police Manoranjan Mahanty said the police had verified the call records of Rakesh’s mobile on the fateful night. It was found that he had made three calls from Joranda. But during interrogation, he had said that he was in Dhenkanal when the incident occurred.

“When the call record was shown to him, he confessed that he had made the calls from Joranda and committed the crime. Rakesh had returned to Dhenkanal after killing them,” said Mahanty.

Rakesh told the police that he was under tremendous financial pressure from his family and he could not meet the burden within his meagre income of Rs 3,000 per month as salesman. So, he decided to eliminate his family members to get rid of that burden. On that day, he went back home. He also slept with other family members.

“Around 3am, when his father woke up and was boiling paddy outside the house, Rakesh hit him on his head with an axe from behind. He died instantly. Then he killed his mother and sister with the same axe. He dumped all the three bodies in the well, Later, he killed his younger brother, who was sleeping in the house and returned to Dhenkanal. He washed his clothes and hid them in the mess. He had dumped the axe in another well near his house,” said Mahanty.