Man who chopped wife's body into 70 pieces and stored them in freezer for 2 months convicted

A local court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand convicted a man for the barbaric murder of his wife in 2010. He was accused of choking his wife to death and then chopping her body with an electric saw into 70 pieces, which he stored in a freezer for about two months.

The gruesome murder in the popular hill station of Dehradun in Uttarakhand is considered one of the most heinous crimes ever reported in the state.

The accused, Rajesh Gulati – a software engineer by profession, had reportedly killed his wife Anupama following an argument on the night of 17 October 2010. He lied to his children, twins aged four at that time, that she was travelling in order to conceal the crime.

However, the crime was finally uncovered when the woman's brother began inquiring about her disappearance.

Gulati's sentence hearing is scheduled on Friday (1 September).

Police reports on the case reportedly stated that the couple had a troubled relationship with frequent fights following their return to India from the US in 2008.

The wife allegedly suspected her husband of having an extramarital affair with a woman living in Kolkata, a city in the eastern state of West Bengal.

During the argument on the night of the crime, Gulati slapped Anupama which resulted in her hitting her head against a wall and falling unconscious. To prevent her from filing a complaint of domestic violence against him, Gulati stuffed her nose and mouth with cotton before using a pillow to choke her to death.

He then bought an electric saw and a freezer from the market, cut her body into 70 pieces and stuffed them inside small polythene bags to store them in the freezer.

To avoid detection of the dead body, he disposed off the polythene bags separately at different locations over a period of two months, the Times of India reported, citing police reports.

Police recovered some of the polythene bags during the course of the investigation, while a few of the severed parts, including her head, were recovered from the freezer at his residence.