A couple was arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur for the murder and dismemberment of a 20-year-old man after investigators found a digital trail on their smartphones, including queries on YouTube on how to evade the death penalty, dispose of a body, survive a police encounter and prison amenities, police said on Tuesday.
Kiran Devi and her husband Kamta Nishad were arrested for questioning based on the high volume of calls the former made to Vijay Nishad, who disappeared on May 8. Discrepancies in their accounts led to a forensic examination of their mobile phones, which revealed an incriminating search history.
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Police Inspector Abhimanyu Manglik said Vijay Nishad was having an affair with Kiran Devi, who allegedly lured him to her house, where her husband beat him to death. “They then used a grinder machine to cut off the limbs, put the remains in a bag, and headed to the forest area of Reona in Kanpur where they burnt the body using petrol to erase all clues.”
Investigators said Vijay Nishad visited Devi’s village to meet her relatives and allegedly posted her intimate photos on social media. Kamta Nishad, who was working as a migrant laborer in Gujarat, stumbled upon the photos by chance, forcing him to quit his job and return home and plan the murder with his wife.
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Vijay Nishad’s family disputed the police version that the couple acted alone. His relatives said villagers saw him being assaulted by a larger group on the night he disappeared. They argued that Devi was pregnant, and that Kamta Nishad had a medical iron rod attached to his leg, making it physically impossible for just two people to dismember, transport and dispose of the body without assistance.
The police registered a case of murder and evidence disappeared, and the recovered remains were sent for forensic examination.
