Man, who drove around with wife's body for hours, arrested for

A man, who drove around with his wife's dead body for several hours instead of taking her to a government hospital for post mortem, has been arrested for abetment of suicide, a senior police official said today.

Police said that Soklaram Purohit (28), a resident of Saki Naka area in Andheri (east), found his wife, Maniben, hanging from the ceiling fan when he returned home from work at around 1am on June 7.

"Purohit, along with a friend, rushed his wife to a private hospital at around 2:30am where doctors declared her dead on arrival. They also advised Purohit to take the body to a government hospital for post mortem," the official said.

However, Purohit drove around looking for private hospitals, police said.

"He then called some people from his community who advised him to take the body to a hospital run by the community," the official said.

"However, these community members contacted doctors who advised that the body be taken to a government hospital as a post mortem had to be conducted," the official said.

At around 9:30am, Purohit, finally, took the body to the BMC-run Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali (west) whose doctors informed the police.

"Purohit has said that he didn't want to take the body to a government hospital as he wanted to take her to the community-run hospital first," the official said.

"Our investigation has revealed that they had got married five years ago and used to have frequent fights as the couple was childless," an official said.

Purohit, he said, was then placed under arrest for allegedly abetting his wife's suicide.

He added that police were waiting for the viscera report of Maniben based on which further investigations would commence.