In a horrific case that has stunned residents of Palghar district and exposed the horrifying depths of betrayal, a woman and her lover have been arrested for the m*rder of her husband whose decomposed body was found buried beneath floor tiles in their home. The most chilling detail is that the victim’s elder brother, unaware of the crime, was asked to install new tiles over the concealed grave.
Ajay Chouhan, a daily wage labourer and the eldest of four brothers, shared his disbelief in a statement to a leading news outlet. He explained that his sister-in-law Chaman Devi told him that tiles had been removed for some pipeline repair work and requested his help in fixing them. Obliging her request, he worked on the floor, never suspecting that his brother’s corpse lay beneath. “I didn’t know I was burying my own brother,” he said in a state of shock.
The deceased, 34 years old Vijay Chouhan, was allegedly k*lled by his wife Chaman Devi (28) and her 20 years old lover Monu Sharma. The couple was arrested in Pune on the evening of July 22, just a day after police uncovered Vijay’s body from his home in Gangnipada, Nallasopara, a suburb on the outskirts of Mumbai. According to investigators, the murder took place nearly two weeks earlier and the accused buried the body beneath newly laid tiles inside the house to hide the crime.
Suspicion began to mount when Vijay’s two brothers visited the home and noticed a foul smell emanating from the floor. Local residents revealed that Vijay had not been seen since July 10 and his wife had also disappeared from the neighbourhood after July 19. The information prompted the brothers to alert the police.
Acting on the tip, officers arrived at the house accompanied by doctors, forensic experts and the local tehsildar. They exhumed the decomposed remains of Vijay Chouhan from beneath the flooring. Investigations revealed that the m*rder was premeditated. The deputy commissioner of police for Virar, Suachas Bawche, confirmed that the accused were next-door neighbours. “They wanted to marry but saw Vijay as an obstacle. They decided to eliminate him,” he told reporters.
The timeline of the crime suggests that Chaman Devi persistently contacted Ajay to fix the tiles, which he was finally able to do on July 19, just two days before the truth emerged. When he asked her about Vijay’s whereabouts, she claimed that he had left in anger with a new phone and was staying at his workplace in Kandivali. However, when Ajay made inquiries there, he was informed that his brother had quit his job over a week earlier, further deepening suspicions.
The Palghar police arrested the duo and produced them before a local court, which remanded them in police custody until July 30. They face charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Section 103 for m*rder, Section 238 for destruction of evidence and Section 3(5) for common intention. The investigation is ongoing and authorities are continuing to gather evidence related to the brutal k*lling and its disturbing cover-up.
