Wife among 8 held as ‘suicide’ turns murder in Aurangabad

Aurangabad: Eight persons were arrested within 48 hours in connection with a death that was initially reported as a suicide but later found to be a case of murder. The victim’s wife is among those arrested.SP Aurangabad, Ambarish Rahul, said Deo police station on Wednesday received information that one Ranjit Kumar had allegedly died by suicide at Belsara Bhuiya Bigha village. Police teams reached the spot, conducted preliminary verification, and recorded statements of nearby residents.Subsequently, on the basis of a written complaint submitted by the deceased’s family members, an FIR was registered. Given the gravity of the matter, the SP constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of the SDPO (Sadar-II), Madanpur, to probe the case.After the investigation, the SIT arrested all eight accused involved in the crime.Police investigations revealed that the deceased, Ranjit, had frequent disputes with his wife, Priyanka Kumari. On the day of the incident, after a fresh altercation, Priyanka allegedly hatched a conspiracy along with her parents, brother and four other villagers to kill him.According to the police, the accused persons assaulted and strangled Ranjit and later attempted to give the crime the appearance of death by suicide by hanging his body from a tree in a garden located outside Belsara village.Police claimed all the arrested accused have confessed to their involvement in the crime and have been produced before the court, which remanded them to judicial custody.The arrested accused have been identified as Priyanka Kumari, Chandmuni Devi, Ganesh Rikiyasan, Munna Rikiyasan, Shivshankar Paswan, Pintu Bhuiya, Hareram Bhuiya and Kundan Kumar.