Wife, Lover Arrested For Murder After Husband's Body Is Found Buried Inside House

A woman in India and her lover were arrested Monday for murdering the former's husband and burying his body in a pit. The body of the victim, who went missing around 4 years back, was found buried inside the house of his wife's lover, reports said.

The victim, identified as Chandra Vir from Ghaziabad, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, went missing in 2018. Vir's wife, identified as Savita, filed a kidnapping case alleging that Vir's younger brother was behind her husband's disappearance.

Investigators could not find the missing man and closed the case due to the lack of evidence. However, based on some recent leads, cops reopened the case and initiated a reinvestigation, NDTV reported.

Based on a tip-off from Savita's 16-year-old daughter, cops searched the house of the woman's lover, Arun, who is also her neighbor. They found a body inside a six-foot-deep pit, and it was later identified as that of Vir.

Investigators determined that Vir was shot and hacked to death by the couple. Arun then covered the pit with cement flooring and continued to live in the house after the murder, police said.

The suspects who were taken into custody for questioning admitted the crimes. They face charges of murder and obstruction of evidence, The Times of India reported.

Police believe the victim was murdered after he questioned them about their affair.

Cops found out that the suspects had kept the pit ready for days until they found a chance to murder the man. "They kept it deep so that there's no stench," a police officer told NDTV.

The officials also recovered a pistol and an axe that was reportedly used in the murder.

In a similar incident reported this week, a man from India's capital city of Delhi was arrested for murdering his 28-year-old girlfriend. The suspect, Aftab Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in-partner, identified as Shraddha, after an argument with her on May 18. The victim's body was chopped into 35 pieces and stored in a refrigerator before he disposed of them over 18 days, reports said.