"Sweety's brother-in-law and his wife were arrested for her murder."
Two people facing murder charge were acquitted by a court in Bihar after the victim of the alleged crime was found alive.
Indrajeet Baidha, the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Madhaura, who cracked the case disclosed:
“A woman named Sweety Devi and her minor son had disappeared from Kakarhat village under Derni police station on May 15, 2019.
“Sweety had told her in-laws that she was visiting her parents’ home but never reached there.
“Two days after her disappearance a woman was found murdered on the banks of the Dabra river in a nearby village.
“When Sweety’s father Vijay Singh was called for identification, he identified the dead body as Sweety through her anklets.
“Singh also blamed Sweety’s in-laws for her murder.
“Following which Sweety’s brother-in-law and his wife were arrested for her murder.”
When Baidha took the charge of the police division and looked through the case, he detected certain missing elements.
He suspected that the dead body of the woman that was identified by her father was not the actual victim and there were no whereabouts her 7-year-old son.
Baidha continues: “As it was a missing link, I changed the investigating officer of the case and handed the case over to officer Vikas Kumar of Bheldi police station.”
“We suspected that the anklets could not be a conclusive way of identification.
“During the investigation, it came to light that Sweety had gone to Mumbai. However, her location was not established.
“A police team from Bheldi police station mounted surveillance on Sweety’s family.
“By gathering local intelligence, the police team came to know about Sweety travelling to Muzaffarpur via the Pawan express train.
“Subsequently, a trap was laid and police nabbed her along with her minor son on December 25, 2020.
“We presented her in the civil court, which immediately gave the order of acquittal to Sweety’s brother-in-law and his wife who had been in jail for the past one and half years.”
The department has also recommended an inquiry against former investigating officer Shivnath Ram’s shoddy investigation.
Sweety had reportedly married Manbodh Kumar in 2008, however, after the marriage, she discovered he was mentally unstable.
To salvage the rest of her life, she hatched a plan to run away.
The two people acquitted in her alleged murder had been Manoj’s elder brother and his wife.