Ghaziabad: A 37-year-old man, his brother and uncle were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly murdering his wife and burning the body five months ago after the couple’s 12-year-old daughter recently confided in her maternal uncle.Police said that in Jan, the accused, Pravindra Singh (37) had first attempted to hang his wife Sonia from a ceiling hook, but when she survived, he smothered her with a pillow. He then took help from the two other men — his elder brother Vinod Kumar (40) alias Ravindra, and their uncle Brahmpal Singh (46) — to transport the body to Muzaffarnagar, concealed it in a mound of cow dung and set it on fire.Muradnagar ACP Bhaskar Verma said the case came to light on June 1, when Sonia’s brother Sandeep Kumar, visiting his niece Mahi, asked after his missing sister, and the 12-year-old told him her father had killed her mother.Sonia’s in-laws, meanwhile, claimed that the woman had left after a fight and not returned. Sandeep met Mahi again on June 5, and after she repeated the account, he went to Muradnagar police station and filed a complaint alleging Sonia was kidnapped and that Pravindra’s mother Bedo Devi was intimidating the child. A case was registered under BNS sections 140(1) (kidnapping) and 351(3) (criminal intimidation).The investigation led cops to Pravindra and eventually Vinod and Brahmpal. Charges under BNS sections 103(1) (murder), 238 (destruction of evidence) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) were added after police recovered skeletal remains from Muzaffarnagar.
Sonia’s in-laws had claimed that she had left after a fight and not returned
During interrogation, Pravindra alleged his wife was short-tempered and earlier filed a dowry case against him from her parental home in Muzaffarnagar before a settlement was reached and she returned. About nine to 10 months before the killing, the couple and their two kids relocated to Muradnagar to live in Vinod’s house. Tensions, Pravindra said, resurfaced soon after.On Jan 29, Pravindra and Vinod allegedly took Sonia to an upper-floor room, looped a noose around her neck and suspended her from a fan hook, police said. Believing her dead, they brought her down, but found she was still breathing. Pravindra then pressed a pillow over her face until she died. The brothers then contacted Brahmpal, who told them to wrap the body in bedding and hire a vehicle to Muzaffarnagar.According to cops, the three drove to the outskirts of Signalpur village, put the body inside a cow dung mound, poured kerosene over it and set it alight. Four days later, Pravindra returned to scatter the remaining ash into a nearby pond.
