Man kills wife, buries body to hide crime

Thane:  A 28-year-old man at a village here allegedly beat his wife to death and then buried the body in a bid to destroy the evidence of the offence, a police official said today.

The police yesterday exhumed the body for probe in the case and arrested the man, a casual labourer doing odd jobs, in the wee hours today, he said.

The man and his wife, also aged 28, resided at Diwanmal village in Bhiwandi area here along with their 12-year-old daughter. The couple used to have frequent quarrels over petty issues, Nizampura police station’s senior inspector R E Yadav said.

On October 13 late night, when their daughter was away at her grandparents’ home, the couple again had a tiff over some issue, he said, quoting a police complaint lodged yesterday by a woman living in their neighbourhood.

On hearing some noise from their house, the complainant went there and alleged that she saw the man beating up his wife severely, Yadav said. She also told the police that the accused asked her to leave and not interfere in their personal matters, he said.

On October 14, when the complainant went to enquire about the accused’s wife, he told her that she had committed suicide by consuming poison, the police official said. The woman then informed the villagers and the deceased’s mother, he said.

Later, the accused buried his wife’s body at a ground in a crematorium in the village, Yadav said. However, the police yesterday received an anonymous call that the man had allegedly killed his wife and buried the body to destroy evidence, he said.

The police, with the help of local tehsildar and other officials, exhumed the body yesterday and sent it to a government hospital for postmortem, said inspector Rajendra Pote, who is probing the case. Based on the neighbour’s complaint, the police arrested the man around 2.30 am today and booked him under IPC sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence).