Man murders wife, attempts to pass off the crime as snake bite

A 36-year-old former bank manager from Indore in Madhya Pradesh was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly strangling his wife to death at their residence in Kanadia area of the city, police said.

The accused Amitesh Pateria allegedly planted a dead cobra's fangs on the hand of the corpse of his wife Shivani (35) to pass off the crime as a snake bite, an officer said.

"Pateria allegedly killed his wife following a family feud on December 1. The accused then planted the dead cobra's fangs on the hand of his wife's corpse to mislead police into believing that she died of snake bite," said Additional Superintendent of Police Shailendra Singh Chauhan.

However, postmortem report revealed strangulation as the cause behind Shivani's death.

"Pateria had purchased a black desert cobra from Alwar in Rajasthan for Rs 5,000 around 11 days before murdering his wife. He had hidden the snake in a cupboard," the ASP said.

Pateria killed the cobra after murdering his wife to destroy evidence, he said.

Apart from Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, a case was also registered under Wildlife Protection Act for killing a snake.

Pateria's sister Richa Chaturvedi (38) and their father Omprakash Pateria (73) were also arrested on the charge of abetting the crime.