Internet helped student kill wife with baseball bat

LONDON: An Indian PhD student researching at a British university killed his wife after picking up tips on the Internet on how to bludgeon someone with a baseball bat and not get caught.

The incident hit the headlines in Birmingham in November 2005 when the body of Deepti Anurag, 29, was found. She had been allegedly killed by her husband, Anurag Johri, 34, who had enrolled for a PhD in business process outsourcing at the University of Central England.

The case is being heard at the Birmingham Crown Court. The court was told this week that Anurag bludgeoned his wife to death as he could not accept that she had become financially independent and had left him.

Anurag and Deepti were married in India in 2001 and had come to Britain in August 2003 when he enrolled into the university's PhD programme. Deepti secured a full-time job at the university. The couple separated in August 2005.

Anurag, however, denied murdering Deepti on November 17 last year, according to the Birmingham Evening Mail, a local daily in Birmingham.

Gareth Walters, prosecuting lawyer, said, "The prosecution say that this is the case of a man who could not accept his wife had left him and was becoming independent of him."

Walters said the day before the killing, Johri bought a baseball bat from a sports shop. When he purchased it, he insisted it should be wrapped up in two plastic bags, one at either end, to disguise it.

"He went to the university where he was a student, logged on to a computer and carried out a search on Google involving tips with killing with a baseball bat and how to murder someone and not get caught," Walters said.

On November 17, he said, Anurag went to the room in the business school where his wife worked as an information assistant and hid a recording device. He later returned, carrying a bag of presents and the baseball bat.

After waiting until she was alone he went into her room with the bag of presents. There was a discussion between them, and Johri left before returning with the baseball bat he had hidden in a room opposite.

"In short, he beat his wife with the baseball bat over the head from which she died," said Walters.

Two CCTV cameras in the building captured some of Anurag's movements leading up to the killing while the recording device recorded sounds, including the victim's screams as she was being battered.

Walters said Anurag dragged his wife's body under a desk and hid the bat and later that night tried to commit suicide.

According to Walters, Deepti had told other members of the staff about problems with the marriage, complaining of being put down by her husband.