Woman, lover held for killing husband, dumping body in river in Uttar Pradesh

Siddharthnagar: A woman allegedly drugged and killed her husband with the help of her partner, later dumped the body in a river in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district, police said on Wednesday.

The accused were identified as Sangeeta and Anil Shukla, police said, adding that they have been arrested.

According to police, the incident took place in Najafgarhwa village under Rekhat gram panchayat in Dhebarua police station area. The matter came to light after Sangeeta filed a missing person report at Dhebarua police station on June 2, claiming that her husband, Kannan (48) was missing.

As police began an investigation, certain leads raised suspicion, prompting authorities to question Sangeeta more closely. During sustained interrogation, Sangeeta broke down and confessed to having an illicit relationship with Anil Shukla alias Vivek, a resident of Dharmapur village.

She admitted to conspiring with him to eliminate her husband, police said.

On June 2, Sangeeta, along with Anil, allegedly took Kannan towards Balrampur. There, they first gave him a sedative and then killed him near a bridge on the Rapti River. They threw his body in the river.

Acting on their confession, police recovered Kannan's decomposed body on Tuesday, about 1.5 kilometres from the location the accused indicated.

The remains had decayed to the extent of a skeleton, and the identification was made based on the clothing, police said.

Shoaratgarh Circle Officer (CO) Sujit Rai said that following Sangeeta's confession, both the accused were taken into custody and sent to jail.