PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE /Dehradun
Dehradun Police claimed to have solved a blind murder case involving an unidentified woman whose body had been found in Premnagar. “We have arrested her first husband on Thursday,” said the senior superintendent of police (SSP) Pramendra Dobal. “The accused, Ranjit Sharma was arrested when he was trying to escape. The deceased woman was identified as Rupa,” he said, adding that eight teams had been formed to solve the case and around 2,500 CCTV cameras, checked during the investigation.
Police said that during the identification drive in the Koswali Kothri area, they had received information about a labourer from Bihar whose wife had not been with him since Holi. Police became suspicious after his child was found with another woman.
On questioning, the contractor, who employed Sharma, said that he had two wives. His first wife, Rupa had come to Dehradun with their child in February and had been living with him at a construction site with his second wife being away in Bihar. As per police, Sharma went out on a motorcycle on March 8 and the next day, he returned and told others that his second wife had come back from Bihar.
Based on this information, police reached Bhatowala and arrested Sharma while he was trying to flee. During interrogation, he confessed to have killed his first wife by strangling her and then dumping the body in the forest near Sheetla Mata Temple.
The accused told police that Rupa had been pressuring him to leave his second wife, which led to frequent arguments. On March 5, during one such fight, in a fit of rage, he had strangled her to death and then hidden the body in a sack for four days. Then on March 8, after his second wife had come back from Bihar, he had gone out on motorcycle with the body stuffed in a sack after leaving his child in the care of his second wife.
Police said that the accused was confident that the body would not be identified as she was new to the area. When quizzed over whether the second wife knew about the murder, the SSP said that as per the initial investigation, she had had no idea. “We are, however, questioning the second wife,” he added.
