Lucknow: A court in Barabanki has sentenced a woman, her lover and an associate to life imprisonment for conspiring to murder her husband and dumping his body in Gomti river nearly seven years ago.
The court awarded each rigorous life imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹25,000. Govt counsel Shailendra Srivastava said the case dates back to March 22, 2019, when 40-year-old Arun Kumar Verma, a resident of Chhulihapurwa Ichhaulia, left home around 8:30 pm and did not return. Additional district judge Asad Ahmed Hashmi convicted Renu alias Radharani, wife of the deceased Arun Kumar Verma, along with Vinod Sharma of Balchhat and Pradeep Loniya of Makmoolganj. Renu later filed a missing-person report at Jaidpur police station. A few days later, a body was seen floating in Gomti river. Police recovered it and sent samples for DNA examination, besides conducting a post-mortem. The medical examination concluded that Arun had died a violent death and that he had been murdered.
The prosecution further told the court that, acting on Renu’s instructions, the two men again took Arun on a motorcycle with him seated between them. During the investigation, Arun’s brother Chandresh Verma contacted residents of nearby villages to trace his brother’s last movements. On the way, they allegedly inflicted a severe head injury, killing him, and later disposed of the body in Gomti river to conceal the crime. After considering the evidence, the court held that the killing was premeditated and carried out in furtherance of a conspiracy involving all three accused, leading to their conviction and sentencing.