Karnataka: man strangulates pregnant wife, buries her in forest

Devanagere/Karnataka: A man who allegedly killed his six-month pregnant wife and buried her body in a jungle here has been arrested on Thursday, police informed. They added that the man had prepared a pit earlier to bury her.

The arrestee is 25-year-old Mohan Kumar from Gangondanahalli near Channagiri town near Davanagere, while the victim, his wife, was Chandrakala, aka Rashmi, 21. Police said that Mohan's parents were on the run.

Mohan and Chandrakala got married last year, and during the initial days, he got doubtful of her character and forbade her from interacting with anyone. He also used to pressurise her to bring dowry. She was tortured and was not even allowed to speak with her parents. This made her call her parents in stealth.

Once after a quarrel, she went to her parents' house, but they sent her back. Around a month and a half ago, the arrestee strangulated his wife during an argument and buried her in the Hunaghatta forest area near Ajjampura in the Chikkamagalur district.

Later, he informed his inlaws that Chandrakala had gone missing and lodged a missing complaint with the police on October 10. However, her parents filed a complaint out of doubt Mohan, and a police investigation found that he had taken his car and gone outside at 2 am on the day Chandrakala went missing.

Strict interrogation of Mohan revealed the truth of his killing his wife, police said. Chandrakala's body has been recovered and sent for post-mortem.

Police added that the accused made plans a month ahead of the murder. He had prepared a pit in the forest to bury her and attempted to erase all evidence too.