The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Man kills live-in partner, entombs body
BHOPAL
A 32-YEAR-OLD man was arrested after he admitted to killing his live-in partner and burying her body under a marble platform on the first floor of his house in Bhopal’s Saket Nagar locality, police said on Friday.
The body of Akansha Sharma was exhumed in the early hours of Friday by the police after using drilling machines. The body had been kept in a box and the platform erected over it.
The police said Udayan Das confessed to strangling Akansha in a fit of rage after suspecting that she was seeing someone else.
The 28-year-old victim hailed from Bankura in West Bengal and had come to Bhopal in June 2016. Das, who lived alone on the first floor, had introduced her to his neighbours as his wife.
Akansha had given the impression to her parents in Bankura that she had moved to the US and, to avoid any suspicion, she used to take care of the time difference while talking to them.
Akansha’s father, a bank manager, got suspicious when he started getting only text messages from her number and filed a police complaint under Sections 365 and 368 of the IPC, SP (south) Siddharth Bahuguna told The Indian Express. The phone’s location was traced to Saket Nagar and a team of the West Bengal Police came to Bhopal on Thursday.
Udayan had claimed that he had passed out of IIT Delhi, and had a job in the US. He had met Akansha on a social networking site but it is unclear why she lied to her parents.
Udayan was handed over to the West Bengal Police on a transit remand on Friday. The SP said he changed his statements several times, first claiming that he entombed her in December and later insisting that he did so at least five months ago.
Udayan’s father, an employee of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), had died some time back and his mother had moved to the US after she retired from government service.
The police said Udayan had dropped out of IIT after he could not clear his first semester and did a part-time job in Delhi with UNICEF. They said they were yet to verify several claims made by him.
Besides having two houses in Bhopal, one each in Saket Nagar and Arera Colony, Udayan also claimed to have properties elsewhere. The police said all the properties he owns belongs to his parents.
When asked about his source of income to support his lavish lifestyle — neighbours claimed he drove a Mercedes and at least another luxury car — police officers said they would be in a position to comment only after verifying several loose ends. He apparently told them that he also has a factory in Raipur. The police found that he never visited New York though he initially claimed to have married Akansha there.
Neighbours said Udayan told them that they had married at a local temple but they rarely saw her after her initial introduction. The ground floor of the house had been rented to Brahmakumaris.
The police said they were not sure when exactly he built the platform because he had purchased cement, marble and sand from a nearby shop on a different date than what he claimed initially.