Biratnagar, January 16

It was this morning that the family of 28-year-old Premdevi Sah got the shocking news of her death. As soon as they got the news, her brother Raju rushed to her in-law’s home.

As he reached the home in Biratnagar Metropolitan City-8, there were preparations to take the body to a riverbank for cremation. In the meantime, the brother spotted some bruises on his sister’s neck. He inquired about it but nobody responded.

Soon, Premdevi’s husband’s family and a few neighbours started for the Singhiya Ghat, a cremation site for the villagers here. They reached the site and were hurriedly putting up a funeral pyre to place the body when police reached the site. Upon sighting a bruise on the neck of the body, police took the body and sent it to the Koshi Zonal Hospital for post-mortem.

“As the bruise was doubtful, we had to take the dead body for post-mortem,” said District Police Office SP Bishwo Adhikari, adding that the deceased woman’s husband Govind Sah was detained for investigation.

The family of Premdevi in Kalabanjar of Barahakshetra Municipality-4, Sunsari had got the news of Premdevi’s death at about 5:30 am.

“As I grew suspicious seeing the bruise on her neck, I decided to inform the police,” said Raju. “She had come to meet us and returned to her husband’s home just two weeks ago; we were shell-shocked by the news of her death today.” Further, the brother cited mistreatment against his sister at her in-laws’ home and sought fair investigation into the mysterious death.

Regarding the bruise on his wife’s neck, Govind said it was from a past incident. “I am the same person who saved her from an attempted suicide five months ago. The bruise on her neck was from that incident,” he claimed. He further said his wife’s mental state was not normal. “She talked to me until midnight but when I woke up in the morning I found her lying on the floor under the bed. I called health workers but no avail. They pronounced her dead,” he said.

Premdevi had tied the knot with Govind 12 years ago. Her husband Govind works at Rathi Polymers. They have two sons, aged 8 and 10.