Man kills wife, sleeps with body

Fight for dowry turned fatal and rotting smell of the body led to man’s arrest after a week

Aman in Bihar killed his wife and slept next to her body for about a week until its rotting smell led to his arrest. The police have arrested the accused and put him in jail.

Police said Mohammad Nasim, a resident of Dhamdaha block in Purnia district, married Shahida Khatoon barely two months ago. Since then, Nasim — an employee with a medical company — was harassing his wife over not meeting his dowry demands.

The fight for dowry turned fatal one weekend, when he strangled his wife to death in their rented room in Purnia town. Unable to dispose off her body, he continued sleeping next to it.

The sordid saga came to light after the wife’s brother Shabir Alam visited their home on Tuesday night to check on his sister and her husband, after his calls to them went unanswered.

On entering his brotherin-law’s rented premises, Alam smelled the foul odour. Suspecting foul play, he instantly informed the local police which rushed to the spot. They were shocked to find Nasim sleeping with his wife’s body on the same cot. To mask the smell, he had lit strong incense sticks which were burning in one corner of the room when the police broke open the door. The accused was taken into custody immediately.

“We have arrested the accused and the case is being investigated,” the local Purnia district superintendent of police, Vishal Sharma, told the media yesterday.

Shahada’s aged father Atiq Ansari said he had already borrowed money from a local lender at a high interest rate to meet his son-in-law’s dowry demands.