Bengaluru man kills wife, dumps body in vacant plot; civic workers find it days later

A 32-year-old man from Odisha allegedly kept his wife’s body inside their Bengaluru home for three days after killing her during an argument over finances, before wrapping it in a bedsheet and dumping it at a vacant plot, police said on Saturday.

The accused, Sagar Chandra Rawat, was arrested more than three weeks after the highly decomposed body of his wife, Anusuya, was found at a vacant plot in MS Nagar near Sampigehalli, police said, according to news agency PTI.

According to police, Sagar and Anusuya had an argument over finances on August 11. Sagar allegedly assaulted and strangled his wife during the argument, resulting in her death due to suffocation.

He allegedly left her body inside their house for about three days. He then wrapped it in a bedsheet, tied it with a rope and carried it out of the house around midnight, police said.

Fearing that he would be caught, Sagar allegedly dumped the body at the vacant site before returning home.

He then collected his belongings, locked the house and began staying on the premises of the small hotel in Yelahanka where the couple worked, police said.

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How was the body found?

The body was discovered on September 2 by workers cleaning the vacant plot following the Greater Bengaluru Authority's (GBA) directive to property owners to maintain their premises. The workers alerted the authorities, police said.

As the body was highly decomposed, police and local residents performed the last rites soon after the post-mortem.

With the body beyond recognition, establishing the woman's identity proved difficult. Police, however, found a mall tag on her clothing that led them to the billing details for the garment. A Ganesha pendant and technical analysis subsequently helped corroborate her identity as Anusuya, police said.

A senior police officer said inquiries at the mall helped investigators establish Anusuya's identity and trace her address.

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When police reached her house in MS Nagar, they found it locked. Local inquiries revealed that Anusuya and Sagar worked at a small hotel in Yelahanka and had been living there, police said.

Police said Sagar had come to Bengaluru about five years ago and married Anusuya around two years ago.

He was subsequently taken into custody and, during interrogation, allegedly confessed to the killing after investigators confronted him with discrepancies in his statement.