The last 24 hours have seen cops in Bhubaneswar and Mumbai claiming to have cracked two spine-chilling cases sharing an uncanny similarity — housewives hacked to pieces.
In both the cases, one committed a fortnight back and the other some four months ago, it’s their husbands who are alleged to be the main accused. Incidentally, the husbands in both the cases are yet to confess to their crime following their arrest on Saturday. A retired Army doctor from Odisha was arrested on suspicion of chopping his wife into small pieces (some say 300) and disposing them of over the past few days.
The police cornered Col (Retd) Somanath Parida, who lived in the Nayapalli area in Bhubaneswar, after chopped body parts of his wife Usashri were found inside nearly two dozen steel containers in two iron boxes at their home. The police were alerted by some relatives on Friday after they suspected foul play.
During a search, police stumbled upon 22 steel containers with body parts along with some dissection instruments. Police also found a plastic bag inside a bathroom in which they suspect the leg bones of the dead woman were kept.
Although police suspect Parida killed his wife a fortnight ago, he has yet to confess to the crime. He told the police that his wife committed suicide. However, Parida admitted that he cut the body into pieces as he wanted to keep the matter secret as his wife’s death would have shocked their two children who lived abroad.
In the other case, police said a principal of a junior college in Nalasopara (East) in Mumbai paid his student Rs 50,000 for murdering his wife.
Amarjeet Singh, 30, hatched a plan to kill his wife Kiran, 28, as he suspected her of spying on him.
Singh also roped in his former student Akbarali Warsi, 20, in the plan.
On February 20, Singh, father of two, called Kiran from his college and told her he had planned a surprise. Singh said Warsi would fetch her and take her to a place
The unsuspecting Kiran was taken to a flat in Santosh Bhuvan, Nalasopara (East), where Warsi’s accomplice Rajaram Das (23) was waiting.
Warsi and Das administered chloroform to Kiran, murdered her and then cut up the body. They put the head in a gunny bag and dumped it in Gavrai Pada, an isolated, marshy area in the region. The police recovered it in the evening after getting calls from individuals who had stumbled upon the head.
“The police are yet to recover all the parts,” said inspector Kishore Khairnar of the Thane Rural crime branch.
The police suspected Singh and kept him under watch and tapped his phone. They found he was making and getting calls from Warsi.
Singh, who had also lodged a missing complaint with the police, told his two children that their mother had gone somewhere and would return soon.
While Singh is yet to confess, Warsi has confessed to the crime. All three accused have been remanded in police custody till July 1. The police are looking for two of Das’s friends, who they suspect helped in the body’s disposal.