An ex-lover has been arrested in the killing of a woman whose chopped body was found in a well, officials said on Sunday.
Prince Yadav was hit by a bullet in a gunfire encounter with the police on Sunday when he was taken to a spot for the recovery of the head of the woman, police said in a statement.
According to police, Yadav, who was arrested on Saturday, had concealed a country-made pistol at the spot and used it against police in an attempt to flee from their custody.
The incident had come to light on November 15 after some locals found the body inside a well located outside Paschimi village.
The body of the woman, who was later identified as Aradhana, was found in a semi-naked condition, and seemed to be two to three days old, Superintendent of Police (Azamgarh) Anurag Arya had earlier said.
The incident comes in the wake of a similar one reported in Delhi where a 28-year-old man allegedly strangled his live-in partner and sawed her body into 35 pieces which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his residence before dumping them across the city over several days.
Yadav with the help of his parents, cousin Sarvesh, and other family members had planned to kill Aradhana, who was stated to be in her mid-20s, out of resentment because she had married someone else and not him.
She lived in Ishaq Pur village of Azamgarh district.
It has so far come to light that Yadav had an affair with the victim, who had got married earlier this year to some other person.
On November 9, Yadav had taken Aradhana on his bike to a temple.
When they reached there, he, with the help of Sarvesh, strangled her in a sugarcane field. The two then cut her body in six parts, packed them in a polythene bag, and threw it into a well, police said.
They threw the head into a pond some distance away.
A sharp-edged weapon, a country-made pistol, and a cartridge have been recovered by police in the case so far.
Sarvesh, Pramila Yadav, Suman, Rajaram, Kalawati, Manju, Sheela, all of whom allegedly helped Yadav in the crime, are still at large.
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