Ex-army man hacked into pieces by wife, lover in UP's Ballia; 4 arrested
Ballia (UP), May 13 (PTI): A 44-year-old woman, with the help of her lover and two others, allegedly hacked her ex-army soldier husband into six pieces in a village here, police on Tuesday said.
The accused dumped the body parts in different locations to conceal the identity of the victim.
The incident came to light Saturday with the discovery of severed hands and legs, wrapped in polythene, in a field near Khareed village under Sikandarpur Police Station.
The victim was later identified as Devendra Kumar, a 62-year-old retired Army personnel, police said.
Maya Devi, his wife, at first tried to mislead the investigation by filing a missing person complaint on May 10 at the Ballia City Kotwali Police Station.
Things took a dramatic turn, when her own daughter, Ambli Gautam, testified against Maya Devi and accused her of killing her father.
Based on the complaint, Maya Devi was booked under charges of murder and arrested.
Ballia Superintendent of Police Omveer Singh told reporters on Tuesday that Maya Devi confessed to killing her husband with the help of her lover, truck driver Anil Yadav, and two others, Mithilesh Patel and Satish Yadav.
Mithilesh Patel was arrested on Monday, while Anil Yadav and Satish Yadav were nabbed on Tuesday.
According to police, the group killed Devendra Kumar inside his home in Bahadurpur locality and then cut the body into six parts, severing both arms, legs, and the head, before dumping the pieces in separate locations to prevent identification.
At Maya Devi's instance, police recovered the torso from a well in Khareed Darauli village.
On Tuesday, during a vehicle check near Town Polytechnic in Parikhara, police accosted Anil Yadav and Satish Yadav, who fired gunshots at the team. Police in retaliatory fire shot Anil Yadav in the leg. He is recuperating in the district hospital.
A country-made pistol, a spent cartridge, and a live round were recovered from him, and from Satish Yadav, the murder weapon.
The SP said Maya Devi orchestrated the murder because she had an affair with Anil Yadav.
The brutal killing, which has triggered shock and anger in the area, comes as the latest in a string of similarly executed spousal murders that took place in Uttar Pradesh in recent months.
In March, a former merchant navy officer in Meerut was killed by his wife and her lover, who stuffed his body in a drum and filled it with cement.
In another incident in Deoria last month, a woman and her lover killed her husband just ten days after he returned from Dubai, cut his body in two, and dumped it in a suitcase in a field.
He was identified by the airline tag still attached to the luggage.
In Auraiya, a newlywed man was killed last month barely 15 days into marriage by his wife and her lover, who hired a contract killer.
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Woman, 2 sons found dead in Delhi home; suicide suspected
New Delhi (PTI): Three members of a family were found dead inside their home in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji on Friday, with police suspecting it to be a case of suicide, officials said.
Police said the incident came to light around 2.47 pm when a police team reached the premises to execute a court order related to possession of the property. When repeated knocks went unanswered, the staff used a duplicate key to open the door.
Inside, officers found Anuradha Kapoor (52) and her sons, Ashish Kapoor (32) and Chaitanya Kapoor (27), hanging from the ceiling, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said in a statement. All three were declared dead.
A handwritten note was recovered from the room, suggesting the family had been struggling with depression.
"The handwritten note indicates emotional distress faced by the family due to which the family may have taken the extreme step," the officer said.
The bodies have been shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) mortuary for post-mortem and other legal formalities under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), police said.
Residents of the neighbourhood said they were shocked to learn about the deaths, adding that the family kept largely to themselves.
Pankaj Kashyap, a resident of Girinagar, said he learnt about the deaths while leaving for work. "I live and work here and was leaving for work when I saw many people standing outside and talking. That is how I got to know that three people had committed suicide. I also saw several police vehicles outside, but I do not know much beyond that," he said.
Baldev, another neighbour, said the family had been living in the newly constructed house for around two years. "We only knew that a mother and her two children lived there. They had moved into the newly built house around two years ago. We did not interact much with them. Today we heard that all three have committed suicide, and whatever we know is based on what people here are saying," he said.
Another neighbour, Ramesh Kumar, claimed the family had earlier attempted suicide.
"About fifteen to twenty days ago, the two sons in the family had attempted suicide and police and ambulances had come. That was when I first got to know who they were. I do not recognise them by face, but we saw the ambulances and police take the two sons that day. Today again we saw ambulances and police arriving, so everyone came out to see what had happened. I do not know how long they had been living here, but this is all we know," he said.
Police said they are examining the family's financial condition, social circumstances, and other factors that may have contributed to the incident. Further investigation is underway.
