A 31-year-old man killed his wife and attempted to cover up the crime by chopping her body into pieces and throwing them across Uttar Pradesh's Shravasti, officials said on Friday.
According to the police, the accused, identified as Saifuddin, and his wife, Sabina, were on their way to Lucknow earlier this week when he committed the crime. He chopped up the body into pieces and threw some parts of it into a canal. He then scattered the pieces across 10 kilometers in the Shravasti area, officials said.
The incident came to light on May 14 when the victim's brother, Salahuddin, called her, but her phone was switched off. The same day, Salahuddin went to her home, where he found that the couple had left for Lucknow. However, in the evening, he saw the accused strolling in the area - but no signs of his sister.
Upon suspicion, Salahuddin filed a missing persons complaint at a nearby police station.
The police took the accused into custody for questioning, but he kept misleading them, officials said.
Two days after continuous questioning, the accused confessed to the crime. He also revealed that he had burnt the 25-year-old victim's hand and hid it in a nearby garden.
Officials have recovered the burnt hand and sent the accused to jail, the police said.
According to the victim's family, her husband and in-laws were harassing her over dowry.
"They were demanding a dowry. He killed her because of this...he burnt her body. We found her hand in the garden. I had filed a complaint on May 14 night," Salahuddin said.
(With inputs from Ammar)
