Laxmipriya Dalei at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 16: Barely a week after a woman was thrown off the Jobra barrage in Cuttack, another woman shared almost similar fate here when her husband allegedly pushed her from the roof of a three-storeyed building at Samantarapur.

Laxmipriya Dalei, 22, fell into a drain near the building and sustained serious injuries to her back, legs, head and chest. She was rushed to Capital Hospital for treatment.

Laxmipriya’s husband, Ajit Kumar Dalei, an autorickshaw driver, is absconding. Puspanjali Datta, a friend of the victim who is attending to her in the hospital, said some pedestrians saw her lying in the drain early in the morning.

“She was crying for help. Soon, people gathered there and informed police, who rushed her to the hospital,” said Datta.

Laxmipriya, who hails from Mangalabag in Cuttack, had married Ajit, a native of Kendrapara district, four years ago. However, their married life was on the rocks for the past sometime.

“Last night, he called me to talk about the matter. He said one of his friends would also talk to us and we went to the roof. However, he pushed me from the roof of the building,” said Laxmipriya.

The victim said she was doing her graduation from Ravenshaw University when she met Ajit during one of her visits to her uncle’s house in Kendrapara. Ajit had done his Plus Two and was driving an autorickshaw. They fell in love. However, as both the families were against the marriage, they came to Bhubaneswar and started living at Bankual on the city outskirts.

“My husband, who drives an autorickshaw here, regularly drinks and consumes tobacco products. He even started torturing me. Frustrated, I had left him recently and was living with a friend. But, I went to the apartment when he called me to talk about it,” she said.

TheLingaraj police have registered a case against Ajit. “We have launched a manhunt to arrest him,” said a senior police officer.

This is the second such incident in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in the last one week. On May 8, a woman was thrown off the Jobra barrage in Cuttack by some persons who had been hired by her husband, who happens to be the son of a retired judge.

The woman, identified as Mini Pradhan, alleged that her husband wanted to get rid of her and her in-laws had started forcing her to terminate her pregnancy. When she refused to abort, the judge’s family conspired to kill her.