Madhya Pradesh: 7 held as bodies of 5 missing since May 13 recovered

The deceased were identified as Rupali Kaste (21), her mother Mamta Kaste (45), Rupali’s sister Divya (14) and cousins, Pooja Oswal (15)and Pawan Oswal (14). According to additional superintendent of police Suryakant Sharma, the main accused, Surendra Singh Chauhan (25), who is a resident of Nemawar, was reportedly in a relationship with Rupali.

The bodies of five persons, who went missing on May 13, were exhumed from an agricultural field in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas on Tuesday, police said.

At least seven persons have been arrested and all of them have confessed to the murder, police said. (HT Archives. Representative image)

At least seven persons have been arrested and all of them have confessed to the murder, they added.

The deceased were identified as Rupali Kaste (21), her mother Mamta Kaste (45), Rupali’s sister Divya (14) and cousins, Pooja Oswal (15)and Pawan Oswal (14).

According to additional superintendent of police Suryakant Sharma, the main accused, Surendra Singh Chauhan (25), who is a resident of Nemawar, was reportedly in a relationship with Rupali.

“A few weeks ago, Chauhan’s marriage was fixed with another woman. They (Chauhan and Rupali) had a fight over this issue. Rupali then made some objectionable posts against Chauhan and his fiancee on Instagram. Upset over this, Surendra decided to kill her,” Sharma said.

“On May 13, Surendra called Rupali to his agricultural field for marriage and killed her. Rupali’s mother Mamta later called Surendra to ask about the marriage. To hide his crime, Surendra asked his younger brother Virendra to call all her family members to the field. Mamta, Divya, Pooja and Pawan reached the village at night where all the seven accused beat them up with rods and strangulated them,” he added.

During the course of the probe, police found that the accused dug a 10-12 feet deep pit with the help of JCB and buried the bodies with urea and salt for quick decomposition.

While Surendra’s friend Vivek Tiwari used Rupali’s phone to upload photographs from her social media account to mislead police, Pooja and Pawan’s mother filed a complaint against Rupali for abducting her kids on May 27, Sharma said.

Five police teams were sent to search for the missing persons and based on a tip-off, the two (Surendra and Virendra) were arrested from a village on Tuesday.

The remaining accused were identified as Vivek Tiwari, Rajkumar Korku, Manoj Korku, Karan Korku and Rakesh Nimor.

Police said the bodies have been sent for forensic examination and the reports are awaited.