A day after a woman’s body was found in Mohabbewala forest area, Dehradun police cracked the case by arresting the husband of the deceased on Tuesday. It is learnt that Aasha Ram Gautam, native of lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, had murdered his wife. He worked as a labourer and lived at a rented accommodation at Bhuttowala Chowk, Patelnagar. Police further said an extra-marital affair had goaded him to murder his wife.
Notably, police had found a cycle, a bottle of acid and a container filled with kerosene near the body.
Police registered a case based on the complaint of the Gram Pradhan Bhagwan Singh against some unidentified persons. After the postmortem was body was kept in mortuary for identification. To help identification, police sent the photo of the deceased woman in the neighbourhood areas of the murder site.
On Monday evening, Pratap Gautam, the deceased’s son, had identified the body as that of Madhu Devi. Two other daughters also identified the body later.
Trio informed police that on returning from schools, they found that their parents were not in the house.
It is learnt that as they called up their father he replied that he would soon reach home. However, their parents had not returned by Monday evening, they told police.
Acting on a tip- off, police arrested the accused Aasaram Gautam from ISBT when he was trying to board a bus bound for Bareilly. While grilled, the accused is learnt to have told police that he had done in his wife with her character not being good.
Investigation revealed that on reaching the forest area, he had hit his wife on her head with a bamboo.
While she tried to escape he beat her with the bamboo. When she fell unconscious he strangled her to death, noosing her with his shirt. His plan was to disfigure her face with acid and burn it out with kerosene.
But some children playing around made him flee the spot after making sure that his wife had died. He later returned to his rented residence and tried to flee by catching a bus from ISBT