NEW DELHI: In a gruesome act, a former judge and his wife hired contract killers to murder their domestic help because she had a relationship with their son and was pregnant carrying his child. The woman was thrown with her legs and hands tied into the Mahanadi river from atop a bridge, but was rescued by locals and admitted to a hospital in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, where she is battling for life. Police have arrested the couple and also their son. A court in Cuttack sent Samir Kumar Ray, a former district judge, his spouse Gitika and Satyabrata, his son, to jail in judicial custody. The court also denied them bail. Prasanta Das, an electrician familiar to the family, who is said to have arranged the deal with the contract killers, was the fourth person arrested in the case. The contract killers, who threw the pregnant woman into the river, are however on the run. The victim worked at the former judge's home as a maid and Deputy Commissioner of Police S Praveen Kumar said the family sought to kill her, as she was pregnant and was in a relationship with Satyabrat. The victim has claimed that Satyabrat, who is a lawyer, was married to her, but his parents were forcing her to terminate the pregnancy. According to police sources, the ex-judge's family had attempted to terminate the pregnancy forcibly, but they were unsuccessful as two hospitals had shunned their attempts. It was then that they hatched the conspiracy to murder her as they wanted her out of their son's life because they had planned his marriage to another woman. Police investigations have revealed that Ray paid the killers $ 6700 (approx) and DCP Kumar said they were on a chase to trace them. The head of Orissa's Commission for Women, Jyoti Panigrahi, met the victim at the hospital and has assured her justice.
