Paradip: Police on Tuesday arrested a 54-year-old man, who had allegedly smothered to death his 35-year-old widowed daughter and grandchildren.

The police said the accused hatched the conspiracy of murder as her daughter had refused to lend him Rs 2 lakh.

The assailant, Akshaya Sethy, a tenant farmer, committed the crime on May 9. He lost his son-in-law in a road accident on April 3.

"We retrieved the bodies of Mamina Sethy, 35, and her two daughters - Barsha Sethy, 8, and Lisa Sethy, 7, - and son Sanatan Sethy, 4, from the Mahanadi river near Jagannathpur village on May 10," said Kujang police station inspector Dillip Kumar Sahu.

Akhsyaya was found as prime suspect and detained. "He spilled the beans unfolding the horror comparable to any Bollywood horror script," he said. Akshyaya lost his son-in-law Biswambar Sethy in a road accident on April 3. His employer, Iffco fertiliser plant, had given away Rs 3 lakh ex gratia to the deceased's widow. Akshyaya had later asked his daughter to lend him Rs 2 lakh for the wedding of his younger daughter. But, she had refused to pay. That infuriated him to make up his mind to murder her and his grandchildren.

On May 9, Akshyaya took his granddaughters for a stroll to the Mahanadi river ghat. He smothered both of them to death there. As Mamina, flanked by the youngest child, rushed to the ghat in search of her father and daughters, they were also killed.