Woman engineer tied to chair and burnt alive, hubby, landlord quizzed

MUZAFFARPUR: Police questioned the estranged husband and the landlord of a government engineer, who is suspected to have been tied to a chair and burnt to death at her office in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, officials said on Tuesday.

Police on Monday recovered the burnt remains of a human they suspect to be Sarita Devi, 42, who was posted as a junior engineer (JE) in Sitamarhi district.

Police said a “suicide note” recovered from the house has been sent for forensic tests. In the note addressed to her mother, Devi said no one was responsi however, said such a manner of committing suicide was unlikely.

Police said Devi stayed in her newly-constructed house with her younger son Aryan, close to her rented office. Her elder son Dhruv stays with her husband Vijay Nayak, who is based in Sitamarhi. The couple has been living separately for nearly 10 years.

Devi had sent Aryan to her mother’s house a couple of days ago. “It is a challenge for us to find the truth behind her killing. We have taken her landlord Vijay Gupta and her husband into custody. They are being quizzed,” said Muzaffarpur SSP Vivek Kumar.

Police sources said they were assuming the remains to be Devi’s as her slippers and some

Gupta, whose house Devi had rented before moving to her newly-constructed house, was known to be among the frequent visitors to her house. Police said he helped Devi prepare estimates for projects. Police said the incident was reported to them by Gupta.

Devi was deputed as a JE under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MNREGS) at Muraul block of the district since October 2014. “Once we succeed in finding the reason, we can easily detect the men behind the heinous crime. We are taking help from a team of forensic experts. We will also get the bones tested for DNA to ascertain the identity of the victim ” said SP (city)