The Karnal police arrested a 25-year-old woman nearly four months after she murdered her 55-year-old neighbour and burnt her body in a plot to fake her own death, officials said.
The accused woman killed her neighbour and dressed her body similarly to hers so that she could marry her Facebook friend. The woman was arrested from Uttar Pradesh, police said.
The police added that the accused has been identified as Antim Devi, a resident of Harisinghpura village in the Gharaunda sub-division in Karnal district. She had allegedly murdered her 55-year-old neighbour Rajwanti who had a similar physical appearance as her, on November 24, last year, at her residence. The accused woman later moved to Uttar Pradesh to marry her lover, a resident of Rasulpur Gujran in the Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.
Shailender Kumar, in-charge of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), Karnal, said that the accused had an affair with a man from Uttar Pradesh. But she could not convince her family members to marry him, and she decided to plot her own murder.
On November 24, Antim was alone at her house when she called her neighbour Rajwanti to her residence and gave her water laced with intoxicants. When Rajwanti fell unconscious, she electrocuted her. She also strangled her to death with a wire and rope and later dressed the deceased in her clothes and jewellery so that her parents would accept her death.
{{/usCountry}}On November 24, Antim was alone at her house when she called her neighbour Rajwanti to her residence and gave her water laced with intoxicants. When Rajwanti fell unconscious, she electrocuted her. She also strangled her to death with a wire and rope and later dressed the deceased in her clothes and jewellery so that her parents would accept her death.
{{/usCountry}}She also burnt her body to hide her identity. Later, she fled and moved to Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, and her kin cremated her body considering it to be their daughter.
The family members of the deceased Rajwanti also filed a missing complaint with the police at Gharaunda police station. An FIR was registered under section 346 of the Indian Penal Code.
The CIA- I in-charge said that during the investigation, the police found that the dead woman was Rajwanti, while Antim was alive and had faked her own death. The police searched her social media accounts which helped them zero down on Antim’s location in Shamli.
The police arrested her from her residence in Shamli, and later during the questioning, Antim admitted to the murder of Rajwanti, police claimed.
Kumar said that Antim has been booked under sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. She was produced in the court, which sent her to six-day police remand for further investigations.