A bizarre incident has come to the fore in Madhya Pradesh's Anuppur district where a 32-year-old woman has been accused of killing her husband, burying him under the kitchen slab where she managed to hide the body for over a month.
It all started a month back when advocate Mahesh Banawal, 35, was reported missing from his house at Karondi village on October 22. Following a complaint by Mahesh Banawal's wife Pramila, the police registered a missing person complaint.
The case, however, took a major twist on November 21 when a perturbed elder brother of Mahesh approached the police. It was Arjun Banawal's suspicion that helped police crack the case.
The victim's brother told police that after his brother went missing, he and other family members tried to visit his home, only to be turned away by his wife Pramila. "We have tried to go to our brother's house several times in the past one month but every time his wife turns us away hurling abuses at us while holding us responsible for Mahesh's disappearance," Arjun told the police.
Following Arjun's statement, a police team was sent to the village on Thursday - to be welcomed by a foul smell from the house. "Once we realised that the foul smell was coming from inside the house, the entire place was searched. Finally, we zeroed on the kitchen slab as the source," said SHO Amarkantak Bhanu Pratap Singh.
The digging began and the police found a decomposed body from under the kitchen slab - the same place which Pramila had used for cooking for over a month.
Just as the police pulled out the body from the pit, accused Pramila realised things weren't going as per plan. She started howling and told police that she was being framed.
Pramila alleged that her eldest brother-in-law Gangaram Banwal helped her commit the crime. "She claimed that Mahesh had an affair with Gangaram's wife and that both hatched a plan to kill him," police said after arresting her.
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Gangaram, however, has denied his involvement in the murder.
Police, meanwhile, say they are looking into how the accused woman dig a pit under the kitchen slab and bury her husband all by herself. "She must have been assisted by someone. We are trying to find that," police said.
Pramila had four daughters with Mahesh, police said.