BHOPAL: A 40-year-old widow, Anita Chowdhary, who had been missing since August 28, was found murdered inside a trunk at her house in Maihar district of Madhya Pradesh, police said.
She earned a living by selling vermillion and other religious items outside the famous Goddess Sharada Temple in Maihar city. With her house in Maharaja Nagar-Andhra Tola being locked from outside, neighbours and relatives, including her two brothers, who live in Maihar, were searching for her outside.
“On Sunday evening, the neighbours complained of an intolerable stench emanating from the closed house, after which the locked door was broken. The stench emanated from a trunk inside the house. On opening the truck, the partially decomposed body of the missing woman was found inside,” Maihar district police superintendent Sudhir Agrawal told the TNIE on Monday.
Based on circumstantial evidence and associated probe, the matter seems prima facie a murder. Some cell phone numbers have been found at the spot, which may play a key role in working out the murder case.
“We’re probing all possible angles and possibilities in the case, including the involvement of some close relative in the killing,” the SP-Maihar said.
Cops are also investigating the possibility of the accused (who could be more than one) having sexually assaulted her before executing the murder and then having decamped with her money earned from the shop near the famous temple.
Importantly, Anita’s husband had died around 15 years back. She has two sons, who work in Mumbai and a daughter who lives with an aunt in Rajasthan.
Her two brothers also live in Maihar city. It was her elder brother, Santosh Chowdhary, who had actually lodged a missing person complaint with the local police recently.