Police suspect that the woman was murdered during a domestic dispute.
| Photo Credit: Illustration by Satheesh Vellinezhi
Bengaluru police have arrested a 32-year-old man in connection with the alleged murder of his wife, whose highly decomposed body was found in a vacant site in Agrahara Layout, in northeast Bengaluru’s M.S. Nagar, on September 2.
The accused, identified as Sagar Chandra Rawat, allegedly killed his wife Anusuya Behara, 28, following a fight over a financial matter in their rented house near Sampigehalli on August 11. According to the police, during the argument, he strangled Anusuya.
The accused allegedly kept the body in their house for three days while trying to figure out how to dispose it. On August 16, around 3 a.m., he allegedly wrapped the body in a bed and dumped it in a vacant site near his house. He chose the site after noticing the vegetation that had grown thickly there. Subsequently, he vacated the house and began staying in the hotel where he worked, police said.
The owner of the site immediately alerted the police, who reached the spot around 7 p.m. The body was wrapped in a bed, and tied with a rope.
A preliminary probe suggested that someone had murdered the woman about a month earlier, and dumped her body in the site.
“Identifying the deceased was a challenge as the body had been decomposing for nearly a month. Special teams were formed, and inquiries were conducted at nearby paying guest accommodations and hotels to establish the identity of the woman, but no leads were found,” an investigator in the case said.
Police photographed the clothes worn by the deceased, a pendant around her neck, and a pair of bangles on her hand. A breakthrough was achieved when investigators found a tag on the deceased woman’s clothes. The police traced the tag to a shopping complex in Bhubaneswar.
By scanning the tag and collecting details of where the garment had been sold, the police learned the woman’s identity and arrested Rawat. The couple had married a few months ago. and came to Bengaluru to make a living.
The woman’s family has identified the deceased. However, the police will conduct a DNA test to confirm her identity.
Sampigehalli police have filed an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Section 103(1).
Published – September 25, 2026 01:37 pm IST
