In Nalasopara, near Mumbai,
a wife is accused
of murdering her husband
with her lover's help.
Like in films,
she buried her husband under the tiles.
'She dug a pit to bury her husband'
'She covered the pit with tiles after burying him'
People...
People mostly run away after committing murder.
Committing murder and burying the body or destroying it
is a very different modus operandi.
'From Honeymoon to Murder'
My name is Shirish Vaktania.
I've been working for Mid-Day since 2019.
Basically, I regularly cover crime stories.
We found out about this incident.
The police go to the house based on a missing person's report.
The husband is the missing person.
Maybe he was killed and buried here.
The husband and wife fought frequently.
The house next to theirs... The neighbouring house.
A guy named Monu who lived there is also missing.
So, we learn that the three of them, including his wife, his child,
and his neighbour, Monu, are missing.
My name is Advocate Anirudh Yadav.
In this case, I am representing Chaman Chauhan and Monu Sharma.
Chaman Chauhan is
the wife of the deceased, Vijay Chauhan.
Vijay Chauhan used to work as a construction worker.
He was a mason.
Chaman Chauhan was a girl educated up to secondary school.
She had been living with the deceased,
Vijay Chauhan, for the last eight years.
They belonged to the Jaunpur district.
Monu Sharma was
a bright student. He was pursuing a B.Sc. IT degree in Bhayandar.
You see, migrants come here from Bihar.
They work here as labourers
and educate their children.
They come here with the dream
of giving a better future to their children.
Monu's family had a lot of expectations from him.
They thought he was brilliant.
They believed he would study hard, succeed in life,
and improve the family's fortunes.
Chaman Chauhan had a big family.
Her deceased husband, Vijay Chauhan,
had 3-4 brothers. They were all working.
So, their financial condition was improving gradually.
My name is Akhilesh Chauhan.
I do welding work.
Vijay Chauhan was my brother.
When my brother and sister-in-law got married,
both of them were doing well.
After that, my sister-in-law stayed in the village for two months.
When my mom told him to get her,
my brother brought her here.
So, I was like...
'How long will we stay in a rented room?'
I decided to buy a room.
I bought a room in Bilalpada Naka.
I made my brother the owner of that room.
Do you know how chawls are?
So, Monu Sharma's house was next to mine.
So, we were like a family.
According to the police,
there was a love affair between them.
I mean, between Chaman Chauhan and Monu Sharma.
So, Vijay Chauhan was an obstacle
to their relationship.
To get him out of the way,
they murdered him. They committed the murder.
In India, around 30 to 40 percent marriages
are labelled as sex-less marriages.
If we ask couples, about the last time they were intimate,
many of them won't be able to recall.
With this background, extra-marital affairs are common.
Monu was 19-20 years old.
She was 27-28 years old.
Her husband was 30-35 years old.
So, the relationship between the two of them was very strong.
They were physically involved with each other.
Monu was younger than Chaman.
Maybe Chaman felt younger with Monu.
'A youngster loves me. I feel more attractive.'
As I said, Monu was emotionally attached to her.
He understood her emotions. He knew they were being suspected.
He was aware of it.
When they started talking to each other, Vijay Chauhan
suspected that there was an affair between Monu and Chaman.
Then, it's possible
the rumours spread.
And there was a rumour of a fight
between Vijay Chauhan's and Monu's families.
I directly told my sister-in-law,
'You are 34 years old, and he is a 20-22-year-old boy.'
'I've heard you talk to him a lot.'
My sister-in-law feigned innocence and was like,
'Brother, do you think I can do something like that?'
She had been living with my brother for 8-9 years.
So, I had no doubt
that my sister-in-law could do something like that.
In psychology, we call it 'rejuvenation fantasy'.
Firstly, one is like,
'I'm still young. Someone younger loves me.'
Secondly, one is like, 'I struggled in my youth.'
'I can have that time back.'
Thirdly, being with them makes one feel,
'I still have the energy I used to have back in the day.'
And normally, when we talk about human fantasises,
one is more likely to be attracted to those younger than one.
Because of that, she wanted
to elope with him and start her life afresh.
Since Chaman Devi and Monu had an affair,
they used to chat every day.
They used to send each other photos.
They used to share their photos with each other.
This used to happen every day.
They used to go to each other's houses.
What happened between them, and what they used to talk about...
Chaman Devi Chauhan gave me her version.
She said Vijay Chauhan suspected
that she was having an affair with someone.
Vijay Chauhan told her,
'I won't divorce you,'
'nor will I let you divorce me.'
'I will make your life a living hell.'
Vijay's family told the police
that he was not the type of person
who would raise his hand on his wife.
And his behaviour was nice.
He was always happy.
He used to buy new clothes for his wife. He used to give her gifts.
He used to be happy.
But after he came to know about the affair,
his behaviour changed.
They started fighting.
They started fighting like a typical husband and wife.
Because of the affair, their fights escalated.
At that time,
all Chaman Devi cared about was to get rid of him.
'I'm sick of him!'
'Not anymore. I've had enough.'
'This can't continue.'
No mom likes to be thrashed in front of her child.
This incident came to light between the 19th and 22nd.
But the murder took place 15 days before that.
15 days before...
The police learn
that Vijay came home at 10 or 11 at night.
After coming home,
he asked his wife for dinner.
He said, 'Serve my dinner.'
But Chaman Devi was not well.
She told him, 'I was asleep all day.'
'I am not well today. I have had a fever since this morning.'
They argued and fought.
That fight...
Chaman Devi told the police
that he hit her with the wire of a charger,
which made her very angry.
Then...
Vijay went to sleep.
Since he worked all day for 12-13 hours
and was exhausted, he fell asleep.
After he fell asleep, Chaman Devi got up angrily.
She went to see what he was doing.
He was in deep slumber.
First,
she tried to wake him up. But he didn't wake up.
Then... She told the police
that she had strangled him to death.
She said
that she had strangled him for 1 or 2 minutes,
and he died on the spot.
That night,
maybe she was done. Last straw.
We can call it the limit.
Her tolerance level was breached.
At that time, she didn't plan to murder him.
But she killed him in a fit of rage.
Chaman was very angry
and she wanted to do something.
It's possible that she lost it at that moment
and thought of getting rid of him.
And her anger that was suppressed for years exploded.
It's possible that she considered killing her husband,
but certain limits were crossed that night
because of which the murder took place that night.
When she killed him, the kid was there.
He thought his dad was asleep.
She asked him to give him water to drink
and even pretended to pour it in his mouth herself.
He would have drunk water if he had been alive.
The water spilt. How would a child understand
if his dad were alive? He thought his father was sleeping.
She asked her child to give water to him...
She did that to deal with questions that could be raised.
She could say she tried to revive him...
'We tried to bring him back. Dad fell sick. He collapsed.'
'We gave him water to help him recover.'
She didn't want her child to think
in the future that his mom killed his dad.
Then she informs Monu
that she caused such an incident.
Monu gets tense about what to do.
Monu tells her
that they should throw the body somewhere.
Since the body is very heavy,
it is not possible.
So, they decide to bury the body
in the same house.
This case isn't one of its kind.
People bury the dead in their backyards.
That gives a kick.
It excites one.
It's a kind of fascination.
But this is normally the case with men.
She being a female, she was just trying to save herself.
He is dead and his body has to be disposed of,
but the body can't be taken outside the house.
In short, she thought burying him inside their own house
was the best grave. She made that decision
so that his corpse would be right in front of her eyes
and even the police wouldn't be able to find the body.
It was like she buried the evidence against her in her own house.
They keep the body next to the bed.
They cover it with a sheet or something.
When she was asked why it had to be dug, she said,
'The drainage line was getting choked.'
'That's why I have to dig there.'
'I have to install a water tank inside it.'
'You just dig it.'
'You don't have to do the rest.'
'We will do it. The other person will come'
'and install a new tank.'
After digging,
when the person leaves,
both of them,
Chaman Devi and Monu, put the body inside
and bury it.
After burying him, the tiles...
The tiles...
The entire room wasn't dug.
They dug an area that was 6 feet by 3 feet.
As if they had dug a grave.
After that,
she calls Vijay's brother to get new tiles installed. She says,
'Your brother, Vijay, wants you'
'to install new tiles at home.'
My elder brother went there and saw
that three tiles needed to be installed.
Since only three tiles needed to be installed, he didn't doubt anything.
He thought he was doing it for the family.
Assuming that, he went to the market
and bought three 2x2 tiles,
some cement, some sand,
and found a woman
to help him.
Then, he installed the tiles.
One day, the builder called me
and said my brother's phone was unreachable.
I called him thrice, but his phone was unreachable.
When I couldn't get through to him, I called my sister-in-law.
She told me that he had gone to work.
I said, 'Okay. When he returns,'
'tell him I called him'
'and that he had to pay the builder.'
One day passed,
and I called her again.
She said, 'He came at 5'
'and left in the morning.'
'He said he would work outside for 3-5 days.'
'He would return after finishing the job.'
Vijay never spent a night outside the house.
He would go to faraway places like Kandivali, Goregaon,
Naigaon and other places.
He would always come home, whether it was at 1 am or 2 am.
I thought, 'How could Vijay stay at the worksite'
'for 5-6 days when he never spent a night anywhere?'
This way, 7-8 days passed,
and I could not find my brother.
In spite of my sister-in-law's assurances,
I kept searching for him.
I did not think about filing a missing person's complaint.
For 15-20 days,
no one knew about this incident.
The body was buried,
and they were living there. She was cooking food
and giving it to the child.
No one had any doubt.
People kept visiting them, including family members
and his brother kept asking about him.
Yet no one knew what had happened.
She buried the body in the house.
She walked on it, sat there...
She worked in the kitchen, knowing what was underneath.
Psychologically, it seems she had no affection toward her husband.
First thing.
Secondly, she become so stone-hearted
that her husband was just a body for her, not a human.
So, she buried him.
She was so detached from her husband
that she dissociated herself from the situation.
So, she didn't care about the fact that a body was buried there.
By walking and trampling over his body again and again,
she kept reminding him,
that I am the same woman whom you thrashed everyday.
When Vijay's brother sees the tiles,
he wonders why the tiles look different.
So, he goes home
and discusses this
with his other brothers and relatives.
That's when I grew suspicious.
I thought that if they wanted to build a tank,
there was no sand, brick, or cement needed for that.
To build a tank,
a 6x6 or 5x5 area is needed.
2X2 tiles...
2 feet wide and 6 feet long...
That's not a typical size of a tank.
The remand report that I have
states that
he grew suspicious after seeing some new tiles.
'Who installed these new tiles?'
One brother gets suspicious seeing the new tiles
and the other brother installs them there.
After installing them,
he charges his sister-in-law Rs 2000. That's what he said.
Will someone charge Rs 2000 to install tiles for their family?
That day, they went to the police station
and filed a missing person's complaint.
That was when Chaman Devi realised that she had been trapped
and that her story would be exposed.
She informs Monu,
who was at a college in Kandivali or somewhere.
She informs him and tells him what happened.
'Probably, the police will come'
'and arrest us.'
They decide to meet at the railway station.
So, she locks the door
and runs away.
My sister-in-law fled with...
I mean, Monu Sharma fled with my sister-in-law.
That was when I understood she had something to hide.
Then, I took my Aadhaar and PAN cards
and went to Pelhar Police Station.
I filed a missing person's complaint there.
On 18th July,
he went to Vijay's house.
Chaman Devi was there,
and he questioned her. Her answer was the same.
He saw the new tiles
in the house and felt it was strange,
but he didn't suspect her at the time.
On the 19th,
he received a call from the mother of the accused, Monu Sharma,
who said, 'Your sister-in-law, Chaman Devi,'
'and my son, Monu Sharma,'
'are in love.
'After learning this, Chaman Devi'
'and Vijay Chauhan had a fight.'
'And now,'
'both of them have run away together.'
All three tiles were white
and shiny,
and it was obvious that they were different.
After this,
they switched off Vijay's mobile phone
that day.
In Vijay's bank account,
there was a lot of money.
He has saved that money to buy a new house.
He had told his wife about this.
To withdraw this money,
she took someone's help.
She restarted the mobile phone
and changed the bank's
OTP and PIN code, and withdrew money from the account.
One day, when Vijay's brother comes home
and calls Vijay, he hears the phone ring.
Then, he grows more suspicious, thinking
his mobile had been switched off for many days,
and suddenly, his mobile was switched on at home.
How come she has it?
He asks Chaman Devi where she got the phone.
She tells him that Vijay left it at home.
Then, I gathered everyone there.
I gathered everyone there. Then, I brought men.
I brought men and got the digging started.
I am Dhananjay Singh, President of Om Sai Welfare Society.
The place where Monu-Vijay incident happened.
I am the president of the society, and I also live there.
The day I went there, the tiles were under the bed.
I couldn't notice them.
The next day,
when we lifted the bed, we saw white tiles underneath.
Everyone got suspicious.
So, we decided to dig it up.
They dug one foot and nothing was found.
My brother wasn't there and so I couldn't ask him.
I got those men to dig deeper.
Once they dug more than a foot,
we could smell something rotting.
We could actually smell it. And then...
I couldn't take it. I collapsed.
They installed the tile after closing the gate.
She said he went to work.
Oh, man...
Look at this. Vijay's...
The ground was dug up.
Look at this. His house...
Look, he is buried there.
My daughter called me and informed me about it.
'Mom, what do we do? Vijay's body was buried...'
Then, the police called a team and started digging.
They dig for 2-3 hours.
After 3 hours,
they found the body.
All the doubts the police had
were confirmed as their phones were switched off.
When she left the place,
she was captured on CCTV.
She was spotted leaving with her child,
holding snacks in her hand.
She goes towards the station.
She meets Monu there.
The police try to trace them using CCTV footage.
They find out
they went to Pune.
Monu makes a payment in Pune.
When he turns on the phone to make a payment, they find out
the location of that place as the mobile gets traced.
The police go there immediately,
and arrest both of them,
and the child is found with them.
As per the police, the investigation revealed...
When Chaman Devi was asked
why she killed her husband, what the reason was...
If she had an affair with Monu, she could have eloped.
If she had had an affair, she could have lived separately.
So, recalling the situation that night, she said
that she did not plan to kill her husband.
It was a reaction to an action.
Now, Chaman Devi says
that she is not involved in this murder.
She did not kill her husband.
She did not bury his body.
Monu did not support her in this murder.
When I ask Monu about this,
he says that he is not involved
in this murder.
There are many different angles.
It was the police's job to investigate.
Why was that place dug up
after 14 days in the absence of the police?
When the investigation was over, and both of them were caught,
they both...
The confession they made in front of the police...
Their confessions were different.
They were trying to save each other.
Chaman Devi said that she had killed her husband,
and Monu had no role in it.
Monu said he had committed the murder,
and Chaman Devi had no role in it.
I personally feel she was a motherly figure
as well as a sexual partner.
That makes children emotionally attached to them.
So, that child, Monu,
did her a favour as he was emotionally attached.
He couldn't see his lover, who was older than him, in tears.
That is why Monu fled with Chaman Devi and her child.
He took the blame for the murder.
He even took the blame for burying him.
Chaman never had a relationship with Monu.
None of that is true.
They didn't use to talk.
You can ask the neighbours, sir.
My son didn't use to leave the house.
The media and the police thrashed Monu
to make him confess.
He told me, 'Mom, they beat me and made me say those things.'
'They published nonsense in the newspapers.'
'I didn't say any of that.'
Just like I got separated from my son,
and I'm in pain...
Their parents should experience the same pain.
Then, they will realise the pain
of losing a son.
Everyone finds it strange today
because we don't come across such incidents often,
where a boy, who's very young
gets into a relationship with a woman
who's about 10 years older.
That, too, a married woman, who has a child.
This...
Coming to Chaman Devi,
the narrative that was set...
That narrative revolves around intimacy.
She was never asked what a woman wanted.
What does she want in bed? Nobody asked.
That is why,
what transpired can be attributed to this fact.
Chaman Devi wasn't happy with Vijay.