Woman found alive 12 years after husband was jailed for her ‘murder’

A woman believed murdered 12 years ago in Bihar’s Rohtas district has been found alive in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand, reopening a case that had already sent her husband and in-laws to jail, according to Gulf News. Shakuntala Devi disappeared from her marital home in 2014 after her brother reported her missing, alleging she had faced dowry-related harassment from her in-laws.

Two days later, an unidentified woman’s body was recovered from a canal near Khanda village and identified by Shakuntala’s brother and a local official as hers. A post-mortem was conducted, and murder charges were added to the case. Her husband, Arun Mehta, along with his father Dilip and brother Govind Kumar, were arrested; Arun was later released on bail. According to the family’s lawyer, the case was eventually settled after Shakuntala’s family reportedly demanded Rs 800,000, forcing the Mehtas to sell ancestral land.

Two months ago, the father-in-law received a tip that Shakuntala had been spotted alive in Jharkhand. Family members travelled there, recognised her, and alerted police, who traced her to Labhari village in Garhwa district, where she had been living under the name Kanti Devi with another man. She has since been produced before a court in Sasaram, facing allegations including fraud and criminal conspiracy.

Investigators are now working to establish the identity of the woman whose body was recovered in 2014 and why it was misidentified as Shakuntala’s.