Priest, wife held for killing latter's lover

The police have arrested a priest and his wife for allegedly strangulating and stabbing a man to death in the Gandhi Nagar area. The cops said the deceased had an illicit relationship with the priest's wife, which led to the unfortunate incident.

The deceased has been identified as Chandrashekhar, a resident of Mathura. The murder came to light after a foul smell started coming from a temple in Gandhi Nagar.

The locals then inspected the premises and found a decomposed and semi-burnt body inside a store room on the temple's roof. "The forensics and the crime team that arrived at the spot noticed that the body was half burnt and still warm. It suggested that decomposed body had been set afire recently.

Since the temple was frequented only by the priest and his wife, they came under the police's radar and were questioned at length," a senior police officer said.This was when the couple broke down and confessed to the crime.

They said they could not dispose the body in time."The priest, Lakhan Dubey, said Chandrashekar was his neighbour in their native village near Mathura. He said his wife and Chandrashekhar had a relationship, which he came to know about.

When Dubey confronted his wife, she confessed and said she wanted to get rid of Chandrashekhar but he was not allowing her to distance herself from him. Then the couple planned to eliminate him," the officer said.

The woman called Chandrashekhar home, telling him that Dubey was away. When he arrived, the couple was first strangled him and then stabbed him to ensure that he had died.

They then hid the body in a store room, waiting for an opportunity to dispose it. When the body started to decompose, they decided to set it afire, to make it difficult for the police to identify the deceased.
DCP, Shahadra, Nupur Prasad said the couple has been arrested for the murder.