Bhubaneswar, Sept. 13: A 21-year-old youth allegedly killed his wife and two minor daughters at Petapalli village in Odagaon of Nayagarh district, 110km from here, last night.

Bhagirathi Nayak surrendered before the police this morning. The exact motive of the crime is yet to be ascertained.

The deceased have been identified as Pratibha, 24 and her two daughters Twinkle, 4, and five-month-old Ratri. Police said Pratibha had been married earlier and Twinkle was her daughter from the former husband.

The matter came to light this morning after residents found the bodies on the local school premises.

"Prima facie, it appears that the deceased were strangulated to death. The accused has confessed to his crime. Further investigation is on to ascertain the circumstances that led to the death," said Nayagarh superintendent of police Kanwar Vishal Singh.

Pratibha and the accused had fallen in love three years ago when they worked at daily wagers in Bhubaneswar. They got married two years ago.

"Bhagirathi's family was against the marriage and so, he made them stay in an ashram near Odagaon. The accused told us that last night, the wife decided to come down to Bhubaneswar with the kids. We suspect that the accused had an argument with his wife and strangulated her and the children," said a police officer.

Pratibha's sister has also alleged that Bhagirathi had been threatening to kill her sister over family dispute. She said: "Everything was fine initially. But later, they used to fight because his family members had not been accepting my sister. My sister had told me that he was planning to kill her."

Murder arrest

Police have arrested a man for his alleged involvement in the murder a mother and her disabled son, whose bodies were found in a paddy field near a Sundargarh village on Monday. However, the cops did not reveal the identity of the arrested person for the sake of the investigation which is still going on.

On Monday afternoon, the cops had found the body of 50-year-old Subhadra Ekka, and her 23-year-old son Deepak. They were residents of Luhakhand village in Rajgangpur police station limits and had been missing since Sunday.

A villager said Bhatra Ekka, Subhadra's husband, had reported that his wife and son had gone missing on September 11. However, he had not informed the police and had been waiting for their return. After the bodies were found, local sarpanch Bikram Toppo informed the matter to the police.

Rajgangpur deputy superintendent of police P.K. Nayak said: "The bodies have been sent for the post-mortem. There were no injury marks. We suspect they were strangulated."

This is the second murder in Rajgangpur in the past two days. Earlier today, the body of Trilochan Minz was found under a bush near a pond under Laing gram panchayat. Minz was a resident of Kissanpara. His wife, who he had married recently, has been arrested.