Man Strangles Girlfriend To Death, Hides Body Inside Apartment Wall For 3 Months

A man in India killed his girlfriend and hid her body in the walls of his apartment for close to three months.

The incident happened in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Police said the victim, identified as Amita Mohite, was last seen with the accused on Oct.21. When the woman's relatives called him to enquire about her, he told them that she moved to another state.

When the victim never returned, the family members approached the police. Last week, the victim's brother spotted the accused, identified as Suraj Harmalkar, and took him to the police station. The accused told officers that he and the victim got married and she was in Vapi, a town in the state of Gujarat.

But the officers weren't convinced. They went to the 30-year-old accused's apartment Saturday and recovered the woman's skeleton after breaking a concrete wall.

The accused was immediately taken into custody. During interrogation, he confessed to strangling the woman to death as she was pressuring him to marry her. The accused then dumped her body in the bathroom loft and built a cement wall to prevent the foul smell.

"The accused and the victim had been in a relationship for the last five years. She was last seen with the accused on October 21," police said in a statement, local television station India Today reported.

The accused was charged with several offenses, including murder.

The incident comes months after a man in India was arrested for burning his girlfriend alive. Avinash Rajure and the victim were traveling on a bike when the former pulled over at a desolate place and attacked the woman. He first attempted to strangle her, but she fought back. He then threw acid and petrol on her and set her on fire. He pushed her into a ditch and fled the scene. A passerby heard the woman whimpering and immediately alerted the police. She was rushed to a hospital but she succumbed the following day. A case of murder was filed against the accused.