A doctor attends to the woman at SCB hospital in Cuttack on Tuesday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack/Bhubaneswar, May 8: A 23-year-old pregnant woman is battling for life at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after unidentified people threw her off the Jobra Anicut bridge today. Before tossing her off the bridge, they had tied her hands and legs.

The Chandrashekharpur police have detained a retired additional district judge and his son, who the victim, Meena Pradhan, claims is her husband.

Meena, a native of Rangunipatna village that falls within Odgaon police limits in Nayagarh district, was tossed off the bridge early this morning with her hands and legs tied. She sustained serious injuries on her chest, hands and waist after getting stuck in the iron girders of the structure.

Morning walkers first spotted Meena around 5am and informed the police immediately. Fire personnel were also called to the spot. Meena was finally extricated from the girders with the assistance of the firemen.

Meena said she had had a love marriage with Satyabrata Ray, son of retired additional district judge Samir Kumar Ray based in Bhubaneswar, four years ago. She said her in-laws were torturing her as they were against the marriage. The former judge’s family resides in Lumbini Vihar, which falls within the limits of Chandrashekharpur police station.

Meena said: “I had married Satyabrata four years ago. Recently, I discovered that I was pregnant, but my in-laws were forcing me to abort the child, as they were against the marriage. Yesterday, they had even taken me to a private clinic for abortion. When I refused, they beat me up and tried to kill me.”

However, the police in Bhubaneswar said that Satyabrata, a law graduate, and his family members had denied that he had ever been married to Meena. On the contrary, they claimed that she had been working as a domestic help in their house since 2007. Samir retired as additional district judge of Kalahandi last year.

In their statements to the police, Samir and Satyabrata said that two persons had come to their house yesterday and one of them said that he was Meena’s husband. So, they let her go with them. They said they were shocked to hear about her accident today.

Satyabrata told the police that his marriage had been fixed with a girl from Patna last month. He alleged Meena was trying to create problems for him. His family members said they believed Meena was after their money. “We are looking into all possible angles of the case. We are questioning the judge’s family. We are also going to verify the woman’s claims,” said Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Praveen Kumar.

The doctors attending to Meena in the intensive care unit of SCB Medical College and Hospital said her condition was critical.

“The woman has sustained severe injuries and multiple fractures on her chest, hands and waist. It also appears that clinically she is two to three months pregnant,” said casualty medical officer Ranjan Tripathy.