Charred body of man identified; wife, paramour held for murder

Kolkata: Two persons, including a woman, have been arrested in connection with the charred body, which was found at Belur on Sunday morning.

The police said the deceased was identified as Ashutosh Malik by his father. Later, the officers found that his wife Kumkum and her lover Rahul had murdered Malik.

Malik's body was found on Sunday morning at Sapuipara in Belur area under Nischinda police station's jurisdiction. Local residents saw smoke billowing near a housing complex.

A few of them thought that someone had set garbage on fire. But, after a while when a few persons went close to the spot they saw the charred body of a youth.

Immediately, Nischinda police station was informed.

Police officers arrived and found that the hands of youth were tied with a rope and a part of the body was inside a sack.

To identify the body, police had circulated messages to other police stations in Howrah and Hooghly.

On Monday, Malik's father approached the police and said his son was missing since Sunday. Hearing his son's description police showed him Malik's body, which he identified as his son. Significantly, Kumkum had refused to cooperate in the identification procedure.

After Malik's identity was established the police came to know that the couple frequently had arguments over Kumkum's extra marital affairs.

When the police interrogated Kumkum, they found several contradictions in her statement.

Later, Kumkum admitted that she and her lover Rahul had killed Malik and burnt his body to hide his identity. Both Kumkum and Rahul were arrested under Sections 302 IPC (punishment for murder), 201 IPC (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 34 IPC (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention). Cops are still probing investigating the case.