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Ludhiana police exhume body of woman ‘killed’ by husband
The woman was allegedly choked to death by her husband and his accomplice on June 14, following which her body was buried in the graveyard at Seera village the same day
The Basti Jodhewal police exhumed the body of a slain woman, Naju Khatoon, 38, from a graveyard in the presence of an executive magistrate at Seera village of the district on Tuesday.
The woman was allegedly murdered by her husband Mohammad Mehfooz and his accomplice Mohammad Rafeeq on June 14 and they had buried the body the same day.
The body has been sent to the civil hospital for postmortem. As the body was decomposed, the police have reportedly requested the health officials for conducting postmortem under the supervision of forensic experts.
Murder accused Mehfooz and Rafeeq are already in police custody as a murder case had been lodged against them at the Basti Jodhewal police station.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP, north) Gurbinder Singh said, “The police had filed an application seeking permission for exhuming the body in the court of the district magistrate. The DC had appointed an executive magistrate to supervise the operation.”
Mehfooz, during the investigation, told the police, “I suspected that my wife had developed illicit relations with other men. Upset at this, I, along with my relative Rafeeq, strangulated Khatoon to death on June 14 and buried the body.”
The accused had also threatened his minor children, who were present at home at the time of the crime, to keep mum and not to tell anybody about the incident.
However, when their maternal grandfather Mohammad Daud reached Ludhiana from Bihar on Saturday and they told him about what had happened. Later, he lodged a complaint with the police.
Daud, father of the victim, said, “Naju and Mehfooz had strained relations for a long. The couple has four children from this marriage. Their two elder children live in Bihar, while two children, aged 11 and 9, live in Ludhiana.”
He added, “A couple of days ago, Mehfooz had called him and said that Naju has died and he has buried the body. When I reached Ludhiana, the children told me about the incident.”
The police lodged a murder case on June 20 and arrested the accused.
