The Mumbai police arrested the businessman who buried his wife alive in a toilet pit.
A Rajasthani businessman who allegedly buried his ailing wife in a toilet pit dug in his home in Majeragaon village, Rajasmandh district, has been arrested and will face the law, a police official said in Mumbai on Tuesday.
"On a request from Rajasthan Police, we have caught the accused who was hiding in the Ashok Nagar locality in our jurisdiction, and sent him to Rajasthan. They will take the case further," Samata Nagar Police Senior Police Inspector Dilip Yadav told IANS.
Claiming to join the Swachch Bharat initiative, the accused Chandmal Jain, 45, had hired some labourers to dig a toilet in his village home sometime in April.
After the toilet pit was ready, he carried his ailing bedridden wife Sarita to the pit and buried her alive at night.
The following day, he dismissed the labourers claiming he didn't have sufficient money to go ahead with constructing the toilet in his home.
For weeks later, Chandmal managed to ward off any suspicion by spreading a mat on the 'grave' of his wife and sleeping peacefully on it.
A few weeks later, his relatives and neighbours started enquiring about Sarita but he dismissed their concerns claiming she had run away from home to her parents' house.
On June 1, he also lodged a complaint with the local Kelwara Police and accused Sarita of having disappeared two weeks ago with his savings of Rs.5,000.
After detailed investigations, the Kelwara Police finally managed to zero in on the crime and dug up Sarita's badly decomposed body from the toilet pit of his home.
Meanwhile, Chandmal had fled to Mumbai and was hiding at a relative's home in Ashok Nagar area in north-west Mumbai from where he was caught by the Samata Nagar Police.
Chandmal and Sarita had been married in October 2013, and last year she gave birth to their child which died prematurely after a fortnight.
Since then, she kept in poor health and remained mostly bedridden, forcing Chandmal to care for her. He finally hit upon the idea of digging a toilet pit to eliminate her.