Bhubaneswar, Mar 26 (IANS): A man has been sentenced to death in Odisha for the rape and murder of an elderly woman two years ago.

District and Sessions Judge K.C. Mohapatra Monday awarded the sentence to Mishro Parija at the district headquarters town of Nabarangpur, 560 km from here, after examining 18 witnesses, government lawyer Prakash Mishra said.

According to him, 25-year-old Parija raped the 60-year-old woman in a cattle grazing field near Kesarbeda village of the district Feb 27, 2011. He then throttled her to death.

Villagers caught him when he was shifting the dead body to a local cremation ground. He was arrested and charged based on a complaint from the victim's son.

Parija is the second man in Odisha to have received a death sentence this week for rape and murder. On March 22, a court in Jharsuguda, about 370 km from here, had awarded capital punishment to a 22 year-old man who was found guilty of murdering a minor girl and having sex with her body in October 2009.