UP man kills wife with handpump handle after fight, dumps body in jungle

VARANASI: Following a heated argument with his 29-year-old wife, Soni, her husband, Gautam Kharwar, brutally murdered her by hitting her head with the handle of a hand pump in Bichhiya Khurd village under Sadar Kotwali police station area and dumped the body near Jalebiya Mod in the Chandraprabha jungle in Chandauli district on Saturday night.

Incident came to light on Sunday when Soni's sister could not contact her and later alerted police.

Chandauli's CO (Sadar) Devendra Kumar on Monday said that when police reached Gautam's place, his activities were found doubtful when cops started interrogating him.

After his initial bids to mislead policemen, Gautam confessed his crime and Soni's body was recovered on his tipoff on Sunday.

Gautam was arrested after lodging of a murder case in this connection, while the body was sent for postmortem examination, said CO.

During initial investigation, police found that Soni was married to Gautam Kharwar in 2020. In their personal disputes, husband and wife used to quarrel frequently since the marriage.

On Saturday evening, they quarrelled again, after which Gautam attacked her with the handle of a hand pump. To destroy evidence, he took the body to the Chandraprabha forests and dumped it near Jalebiya Mod.

When the sister and other maternal family members of Soni could not contact her despite repeated phone calls, they alerted police.