BAREILLY: In a chilling echo of Meerut’s “blue drum” murder, police in Sambhal have uncovered another brutal crime marked by betrayal, extreme violence and a near-identical method of disposing of the body.
Investigators said a 32-year-old shoe trader was allegedly murdered by his wife and her lover in Chandausi. The accused then dismembered the body and dumped the remains at multiple locations. The victim, Rahul Kumar, was killed after he reportedly caught his wife, Ruby, with her lover Gaurav Kumar, a neighbour, in a compromising position at their home on the night of November 17. Both suspects were arrested on Monday.
Police said Rahul’s head was severed, and his hands and legs were cut off before the body parts were scattered. The crime revived memories of the Meerut “blue drum” case in which an ex-merchant navy officer was murdered, chopped into pieces and concealed in a drum sealed with cement earlier this year.
Sambhal superintendent of police Krishan Kant Bishnoi said Ruby (30) had filed a missing complaint on November 18, claiming her husband had disappeared. On December 15, police recovered a torso with the limbs missing. Later, a polythene packet containing a human head was found in a drain. “During examination, we noticed the name ‘Rahul’ inked on the chest,” he said.
Bishnoi added that police across several districts were alerted based on the missing complaint. When Ruby was called to identify the remains, she refused and then went missing herself, raising suspicion. “When summoned for questioning, she confessed,” he said.
According to her statement, Rahul assaulted the pair in a fit of rage after discovering them together and threatened to defame her and throw her out of the house. “At that moment, I asked Gaurav to finish him,” Ruby allegedly told police. Gaurav struck Rahul with an iron rod, while Ruby hit him with a metal shoe hammer, killing him on the spot.
She further said that the next day they bought a grinder, cut the body into parts and packed them into bags. One bag containing the severed head and legs, along with Rahul’s mobile phone, was dumped into the Ganga at Rajghat. Another bag was thrown into a drain near the Idgah on Patraua Road. The accused allegedly burnt Rahul’s lower garment and their blood-stained clothes, and hid the grinder in nearby bushes.
Police said the couple had been married for 12 years and have an 11-year-old son, who told officers that his parents often fought over a man who frequently visited their house.
An FIR has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 103 (murder), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information), and 61 (criminal conspiracy).
