Bhopal: In yet another surprising incident, a woman allegedly throttled her lawyer husband and buried his body in the kitchen.
The incident is reported from a village of Anuppur district where the accused wife and mother of four children Pratima Banawal built a mud stove over her husband’s burial and calmly cooked for 10 days, TOI reports.
The neighbors came around asking for the accused’s husband who they thought had gone missing for a long time.
Upon questioning, the accused told investigators that she killed her husband because he had an affair with his elder brother’s wife. Her brother-in-law aided in the murder, she said.
According to sources, the victim, 40-year-old Mohit Banawal, practiced in Rajendragram court and lived in Karoda Tola village of Anuppur district, close to the Chhattisgarh border.
He went missing on 11 November. The victim Mohit and his elder brother Ganaram Banawal’s families lived together in the same house.
“The accused has admitted in her statement that her husband had illegal relations with his sister-in-law, and this irked her and Ganaram, so they killed Mohit,” said Anuppur SP Kiranlata Kerketta.
“Pratima said that she first mixed a drug in her husband’s food and he became unconscious after eating it. Then she and her husband’s elder brother strangled him with wires. They used wires to tie his hands and legs and buried the body under the floor where food was cooked. They smoothed it over, built mud stoves on it and Pratima continued cooking on the same spot till November 21, when the body was exhumed,” the SP said.
It was when villagers began asking around for Mohit, things looked a little suspicious.
“On Thursday, some villagers called a meeting at Banawals’ home as Mohit was missing for so many days. During that meeting, Pratima was reluctant to allow anyone into her kitchen. It made villagers suspicious and some of them barged in,” the SP said.
They noticed that the floor around the mud stoves seemed to be freshly dug up.
“Some of the men inserted a rod in the mud floor, and a foul smell immediately broke out. Shocked, the villagers informed the police and the body was exhumed,” she added.
The victim’s autopsy report confirmed strangulation, the SP said.
“Pratima claims that she executed the crime with the help of her brother-in-law, but he is yet to be arrested as further investigations are on,” said the SP.