The Nallasopara police on Saturday morning arrested a 50-year-old man on culpable homicide charges for locking his mentally-ill wife in their rented room for 10 days due to which she died of hunger in July. The matter came to light 10 days later after pungent stench started emanating from her decomposed body and neighbours got alarmed.
The Nallasopara police said the accused, Ramesh Rai, lived with his wife in a rented room on the first floor of Maheshwari building in Alakpuri, Nallasopara (east). In his confession, Rai, claimed that he had received a phone call from his relatives in his village Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, who informed him about his minor daughter who had fallen sick. Rai rushed to his village on June 13 and locked the room from outside, leaving his wife Kiran (40) behind. Rai’s minor daughter died of fits on June 30. However, he did not return to Mumbai and chose to stay back in the village despite knowing he had locked his wife here.
According to the neighbours, Kiran never spoke with anyone in the neighbourhood.
On June 30, a foul smell started emanating from the decomposed body after which the neighbours complained to the police and the door was broken down. The swollen body was then sent to a hospital for post-mortem and it was revealed that the woman had died of hunger.
“We got in touch with his landlord and got his work address. Ramesh worked as a watchman with Wibs Bakery in Dadar, but had left the job a couple of months ago. Somehow, we traced him to his village. He has been booked under Section 304 as he purposely left his wife to die. He was produced in court and remanded to our custody till August 6 for further investigation,” said investigating officer Sunil Lokhande of Nallasopara police station.