Police said that for the job, she hired two contract killers, identified as Shashikant alias Sanjay Kumar and Ranjit alias Sanjay Yadav for Rs. 1 lakh and paid them Rs. 25,000 in advance

The man, a railway employee was killed on December 31 (Representative Photo)

A housewife and two others were arrested by Bihar’s Munger police for killing a government worker 21 days after his death, officials said. According to the police, the housewife, identified as Beena Hansda, hatched a plan to kill her husband and make it look like an accidental death to secure a government job for herself on compensatory grounds and get rid of mounting loans.

Police said that for the job, she hired two contract killers, identified as Shashikant alias Sanjay Kumar and Ranjit alias Sanjay Yadav for Rs. 1 lakh and paid them Rs. 25,000 in advance.

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The incident came to light when Haveli Kharagpur police on January 1 found the body in a canal and lodged an unnatural death case. The deceased was identified as Anup Tuddu, a railway employee at the Jamalpur workshop.

According to the police, days after the post-mortem, it was found that the man died due to strangulation and based on the report, Munger superintendent of police (SP) Jagunath Jalareddy constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to follow the case and arrested the two accused.

Police said that Kumar was arrested from his Railway Hospital area residence in Jamalpur. Upon interrogation, he confessed to the crime and gave further leads to reach the other accused and unravel the entire conspiracy.

From the information received, the police arrested Ranjit Govindpur village. During interrogation, he too confessed to the crime and narrated the entire episode.

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Both admitted that they took ₹25,000 from Hansda for killing her husband and later threw his body into the canal to make it look like an accidental death.

According to the police, on New Year’s Eve, both the accused reached Tuddu’s house, whom the wife identified as her relatives.

Police said that the three of them, including Kumar, Ranjit and Tuddu, consumed liquor and hours later, when Tuddu was asleep, his wife Hansda, Kumar and Ranjit strangulated him to death using a blanket and threw his body into a canal.

"Everything was well planned, but the accused made mistakes based on which they were arrested within 21 days of the incident. During the primary interrogation, the wife tried to mislead us but later confessed that she hatched a conspiracy to eliminate him to secure a government job for herself on compensatory grounds," said Niraj Kumar, station house officer (SHO), Haveli Kharagpur.

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As per a standing circular issued by the department of personnel and training of the union government, in case of a natural death or accidental death of a government employee during his service period, the wife of the deceased government servant would be considered for employment in a job suitable to her qualification in Class 3 or 4 posts.

Police said that after they apprehended Hansda, she informed her husband was a habitual drinker and was all set to retire this month. She said he also collected huge loans from many people and so she planned to kill him as after her husband’s death, no one would ask her to return the money, and she would get a job as well as a general provident fund (GPF) money, besides mandated pension.