RAIPUR: A 25-year-old labourer has been arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Baloda Bazar district for allegedly killing a woman he had been in a relationship with and burning her body to destroy evidence, a police statement said on Monday
Police identified the deceased as 26-year-old Tejaswini Patel, a resident of Charoti village, whose charred body was found on October 25.
A case was registered under sections 103(1) and 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at City Kotwali police station, and the investigation was launched.
Police said the woman had suffered multiple stab and blunt force injuries before being set on fire.
During the probe, police recorded statements of villagers and the victim’s family to piece together a sequence of events.
Based on witness accounts and local inputs, investigators detained Salik Ram Paikara, a resident of the same village.
Citing Paikara’s statement, police said he and Tejaswini, who also worked as a labourer, had been in a relationship for the past four-five months but had recently split. But Paikara continued to pressure her to meet him and resume their relationship. When she refused, he decided to kill her.
Paikara convinced the woman to slip out of her house on the intervening night of October 24–25, around 1.30–2.00 am. When she declined his offer to resume their relationship, he attacked her with a knife and a wooden stick, killing her on the spot. He dragged her body to a spot near the fodder heap and set it on fire. Police said he returned home after killing the woman and went home to sleep. He woke up the next morning and went to another village, as if nothing unusual had happened, police said.
{{/usCountry}}Paikara convinced the woman to slip out of her house on the intervening night of October 24–25, around 1.30–2.00 am. When she declined his offer to resume their relationship, he attacked her with a knife and a wooden stick, killing her on the spot. He dragged her body to a spot near the fodder heap and set it on fire. Police said he returned home after killing the woman and went home to sleep. He woke up the next morning and went to another village, as if nothing unusual had happened, police said.
{{/usCountry}}Investigators also found that he had created 19 fake Instagram accounts in the name of different women and used them to communicate with strangers.