VARANASI: Azamgarh police on Sunday claimed to have solved the mystery behind the brutal killing of a woman, whose dismembered body had been recovered from a well of Pashchim Patti village of the district on November 16 by arresting his former boyfriend Prince Yadav.
According to police, Prince, 24, strangled Aradhana Prajapati, 22, of Ishaqpur village with the help of his cousin, Sarvesh, and hacked her body into pieces before dumping them into a well on November 10.
Her head was disposed of six kilometres away. Police say the two were in a relationship and Prince got upset after Aradhana's family married her off to another boy in February.
Prince’s parents and other relatives, including two maternal uncles, aunts, cousin brother and sister have been made accused in this case for hatching conspiracy and sheltering the two alleged killers.
All of them are absconding and police have announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 on Sarvesh. Prince had been detained by police on November 19 and was formally arrested after an encounter when he tried to escape while taking the police to a pond where he had dumped the head.
According to police, after the teams engaged in working out this case came to know that Aradhana was missing since November 10, they zeroed in on possible suspects and Prince was on top of the list as he had been pressuring her to break her marriage to be with him.
During interrogation, Prince confessed that he killed Aradhana. "After his confession, a team on Sunday took him to the pond six kilometres from Paschim Patti village in which he had dumped the head and weapons used for hacking Aradhana's body. When the police team was busy searching for evidence, Prince recovered a country made revolver, which he had hidden in a neighbouring field, and tried to escape after opening fire on cops," said Azamgarh SP Anurag.
"Policemen also opened fire in defence in which he suffered bullet injuries in the leg," Arya said, adding, "the injured Prince was admitted to hospital." Aradhana’s father Kedar and brother Sunil have confirmed her identity, he said.
As per investigation, Prince had an affair with Aradhana for the past two years and wanted to marry her. But, he went to a Gulf country for a job when her family married her off to another person in February. When Prince came to know about this, he came back and started pressuring Aradhana to break her marriage but she was not ready for it, police say.
According to police, on November 9, Prince made an abortive bid to take Aradhana with her. However, the next day, he was able to convince her to go to a nearby temple. After offering prayer at the temple, they consumed food at a restaurant and he later took Aradhana to her maternal uncles’ place in Paschim Patti village.
Arya said it was there that an unsuspecting Aradhana was strangled. In a bid to conceal her identity, Prince and Sarvesh chopped the body into pieces, the SP added.
"They chose a well, which is covered with bushes, and situated at a lonely place to dump the hands, legs and torso. The head and weapons used in chopping were dumped into a pond six kilometres away," he added.
