Kishtwar, Sept 11: Police have arrested husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law of a woman who was murder in July this year and passed off as a case of suicide in Kishtwar district, officials said. The accused had killed the woman— Neetu Devi— so that second marriage of her husband, Lokesh Kumar, resident of Horna Tehsil Mughal Maidan District Kishtwar, could be solemnized, police said.
A police spokesman in a statement said that on July 11, an inquest proceedings under Section 174 Cr.PC into the suspicious death of one Smt. Neetu Devi was initiated at Police Station Chatroo. The inquest proceeding was initiated when it came to know from the paternal side that the in-laws of the deceased lady were performing last rites of the deceased without informing her parents.
Initially, they said, in-laws of the deceased lady stated that the deceased lady had committed suicide by hanging herself. “During the course of enquiry, some foul play into the matter was substantiated by the enquiry officer and accordingly the inquest proceedings was converted into FIR No. 51/2021 U/Sec. 302/IPC of Police Station Chatroo.”
Keeping in view the sensitivity of the case, SSP Kishtwar Shafqat Hussain Batt (JKPS) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the supervision of Addl. SP Kishtwar Rajinder Singh (JKPS) headed by Dheeraj Singh Katoch, Dy. SP DAR, supervisory officer of police station Chatroo alongwith SHO Inspector Sandeep Parihar. The SIT collected evidences, lifted some suspects for questioning and during the course of investigation and sustained questioning of the suspects it was established that the deceased waomn was murdered by her husband namely Lokesh Kumar son of Isher Dass, Gowash Lal (Brother in-law) and Devki Devi (mother-in-law) by strangulating her with a duppata and hands, the spokesman said.
Accordingly, he said, on the basis of investigation viz-a-viz statement of witnesses and other evidences, the SIT established the role of the trio. “The accused persons after committing the heinous crime shifted the dead body of the deceased to a nearby Committee Hall and hanged it with a hook using Dupatta to pretend that the deceased had committed suicide,” he said.
During investigation, he said, it came to fore that the in-laws of the deceased wanted to get another marriage of Lokesh Kumar (husband of deceased) solemnized somewhere else for which they carried out such a heinous crime in a planned manner. “All the accused persons were taken into custody and presently are lodged in District Jail Kishtwar,” the statement added.
