E-Paper
Man kills wife, parts of skeleton recovered 43 days later
After the crime, the accused took his wife’s phone to various places, including Kanpur, to mislead the cops
In an elaborately planned and executed plan, a man killed his wife, dismembered her body and buried the parts separately at a deserted spot in Bamrauli. After 43 days, the Puramufti police arrested the accused on Friday and sent him to jail on Saturday.
On his confession, the police recovered parts of the skeleton of the murdered woman buried at different places but within a short distance of each other, police said.
In her complaint to the Puramufti police, one Shahnaz Begum claimed that her daughter, Rabia’s husband, Salman and his kin were harassing her for dowry. Shahnaz suspected foul play as 26-year-old Rabia had gone missing since July 13. She said that Salman and his kin had even assaulted Rabia and had thrown her out of the house on May 3, this year. Later, he had made up with her and they had started living in a separate rented room, she said.
On Shahnaz’s complaint, police registered an FIR under sections 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 304-B (dowry death), 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) as well as sections of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, and after investigation arrested Salman on Friday night.
During questioning, Salman confessed to have killed Rabia as she used to harass and insult him, police claimed.
SP, city, Santosh Kumar Meena, said that during questioning, Salman said that he had married Rabia on January 7, this year, following an affair. Rabia, who was married at the time, had divorced her husband to marry him. Salman was not keen on the marriage and it was under pressure from Rabia that he married her. However, they used to have arguments and fights over petty issues routinely. Even Salman’s family members were unhappy with the marriage and so Salman and Rabia took a separate room and started living there. However, the arguments and fights continued, he said.
On July 13, Rabia had gone to Bamrauli railway station to see off her sister who was going to Muzaffarnagar. He decided to eliminate her on her way back. He called on her mobile and summoned her to Mundera on the pretext of going on a ride.
“From Mundera, he took Rabia to Preetam Nagar, where they had some tea and snacks at a restaurant and Jhalwa. For four hours the two kept roaming around in the city. At around 9pm he took her to Bamrauli jungle near Lal Bihara area and strangled her using her dupatta,” the officials said.
Salman then cut off her head and hands and buried them in different places in the area itself and returned home. He also burned her clothes. He then took her mobile phone, still switched on, from one place to another, and on July 15 even took the mobile to Kanpur and returned to Prayagraj after leaving the mobile phone in a train—all aimed at misleading the police, he added.
On August 8, Rabia’s sister, Sufia, registered a missing person’s report with the Puramufti police station for Rabia and the police questioned Salman but he denied having any knowledge about her. On August 26, the police again questioned him following the registration of the FIR and he confessed to his crime, police said.
On his confession, police recovered parts of Rabia’s skeleton from the Bamrauli jungle and also recovered the knife used in the crime.
