A skeleton, suspected to be of a 30-year-old woman who went missing nearly a month ago, was recovered from a mustard field in the Nagram area of Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow on Wednesday morning, officials said.
The highly decomposed and mutilated corpse made it difficult for authorities to identify the deceased. However, a senior official stated that a sari found at the site helped identify the woman as Poonam, wife of Pitambar.
An official police statement said that the mustard field at Kubehra village, from where the remains were found, is located "barely 300 metres from the woman's house", HT reported earlier.
ALSO READ | Woman autorickshaw driver found dead in UP's Jhansi; family alleges murder
Nagram station officer Vivek Kr Chaudhary said that a villager, Chandraprakash, discovered the skeletal remains in the field in the Gomti river area of the village and informed the police around 10 am.
The condition of the remains made immediate identification difficult. "However, a sari recovered from the site led police to suspect that the remains could be of a woman. The sari has been identified by family members as belonging to Poonam, wife of Pitambar, aged around 30 years," the station-in-charge added.
{{/usCountry}}The condition of the remains made immediate identification difficult. "However, a sari recovered from the site led police to suspect that the remains could be of a woman. The sari has been identified by family members as belonging to Poonam, wife of Pitambar, aged around 30 years," the station-in-charge added.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, additional deputy commissioner of police (Lucknow South) Rallapalli Vasanth Kumar stated that while they have identified the body with the help of clothes, they have sent the remains for DNA analysis to "ensure no errors".
ALSO READ | Lucknow woman found ‘sitting dead' against wall, 9 kms away from home
"Once the DNA test report is received, we will proceed accordingly. In the meantime, we are investigating the matter thoroughly from all angles," Kumar added.
Police informed that Pitambar lodged a missing person complaint at the Nagram police station on December 13, 2025, reporting that his wife had gone missing.
Husband under scanner
The official police statement further noted that the woman, who had two children, was allegedly in contact with a man from the neighbourhood.
"Based on call detail records, several villagers and other suspects were questioned earlier," it added.
ALSO READ | Lucknow woman killed in drunken brawl, then ‘made to look alive’
Around two months before her disappearance, police said that her husband had allegedly confiscated her mobile phone over this matter, news agency PTI reported. Following this, she left the house, they added.
Additionally, following the recovery of the skeletal remains, Poonam's family members have accused her husband of killing her. Police had to pacify the family after they staged a protest over the matter.
Police said that the husband is under their scanner as part of the investigation, adding that other angles are also being probed.