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A 35-year-old man was arrested on Friday on charges of murdering his wife, burying the body in the fields of Modinagar and then sowing millets over it, the police said, adding that the motive for the crime was that he allegedly suspected her of having an affair with another man.
Police identified the suspect as Dinesh Kumar Prajapati, a vegetable vendor, and said he strangled his wife Anju, 32, on the night of January 25 at their home and hid the body in a heap of fodder. He allegedly told the children that their mother had gone somewhere. On the night of January 26, he took the body out to a nearby field and buried it there, police said.
“He had purchased two bags of salt, weighing 20kg each, a week before the murder. Before burying the body, he poured about 30kg of salt and covered it with earth to ensure that the body decomposed speedily. Later, he sowed millet saplings over the spot so that people do not see the dug-up portion. From the next day, he visited the spot day and night to ensure that everything was intact,” said Ravi Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (rural).
On January 30, Prajapati approached police saying his wife was missing and filed a missing person complaint. The couple got married in 2009 and had three children aged 12, 10 and eight years, police said.
Police said their marriage soured after Prajapati allegedly came across recordings of telephone conversation between his wife and another man.
While investigating the missing complaint, the Bhojpur police came to know from locals about the discord between the couple. When the suspect was called in for questioning, he broke down and admitted to killing his wife and burying the body in the fields.
“He told us that he listened to the recordings and then he decided to kill his wife. A month ago, a local panchayat was also held to sort out the marital discord but the problems remained unsolved. The suspect, on January 24, waited for his children to fall asleep and, around 3am, overpowered his wife and strangled her to death,” the DCP said, adding that the body was recovered on Thursday and Prajapati was formally arrested on Friday.
The missing person FIR has been converted to a case of murder and sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code have been added to it, said police.
