Man kills, buries girlfriend under concrete in Bhopal

A 28-year-old woman from Bankura was killed and buried under concrete slab in the house of his live-in boyfriend at Saket Nagar in Bhopal.

Akansha Sharma, who was originally a resident of Rabindrasarani in Bankura, had gotten into a relationship with one of her Facebook friends, Udayan Das, in July 2016 and had left her home saying that she had bagged a job in US, but went to the residence of Udayan in Bhopal.

Her family members initially considered her claims to be true as she had shown offer letter of the job with UNICEF in US.

On January 5, Akansha's father Sibendra Kumar Sharma lodged a missing complaint with Bankura police stating that her daughter went missing. Police initiated a probe and found her mobile phone tower location in Bhopal.

A team comprising senior police officers from Bankura went to Bhopal and what their investigation revealed resembles the Sheena Bora murder and Robinson Street skeleton recovery case.

Udayan broke down during interrogation by the police officers and confessed that he had killed Akansha within a month after she came to Bhopal and buried her under the floor of his bedroom in the first floor of his house. The body was evacuated on Friday.

Though the exact reason behind the murder is yet to be ascertained, police suspect that Udayan's suspicion of Akansha's relationship with another youth had led to the crime. Police came to know about the other youth called Bikash.

Investigation revealed that Udayan killed Akansha either on August 12 or 13.

He had packed Akansha's body in a trunk and buried it under the floor. He constructed a concrete structure on the floor where the body was buried.

Interestingly, he used to put flowers on the concrete structure two times a day and used to offer prayers by remaining seated in front of the structure for hours.

As it had happened in Robinson Street skeleton recovery case, Udayan sealed all windows of the room so that no one gets the foul smell from outside.

When enquired by local people when they didn't find Akansha for some time, he told them that she went to her mother's house in Bankura.

A police officer said Akansha's father, who is a branch manager of a nationalised bank, got posted to Bankura in June.

Akansha was born and brought up in Delhi where she had been preparing for competitive examinations along with her younger brother. She visited Bankura only once in June 2016 and from there she went to Bhopal after saying in her house that she was going to US. Her father had even shown here job offer letter to his colleagues who had appreciated her success.

The victim's family members started suspecting as they had stopped getting WhatsApp messages from mid December 2016.

Investigating officers came to know that Udayan used to keep sending WhatsApp messages to Akansha's parents to make them believe that their daughter was alright and her work was going well in US. But for certain reasons he stopped sending messages. Repeated efforts made by her parents to get in touch with Akansha failed and they finally lodged a complaint with the police.