Jamshedpur police recover skeleton of woman who had left home with paramour

Jamshedpur: In a chilling turn of events, local authorities have discovered the skeletal remains of a 28-year-old woman, Reena Devi, who had departed her residence with her paramour, Mukesh Bhatt, in the suburban Govindpur thana area nearly one month ago.

Reena Devi, a mother of two children, had been residing at her parents’ house in Govindpur for the past two years while her husband, Akshay Lal Shah, worked at a jute mill in Calcutta.

The timeline of events suggests that Reena became acquainted with Mukesh, a casual laborer, a mere three months prior to her disappearance on August 22. Concerned for his wife’s well-being, Akshay Lal returned to Jamshedpur and promptly filed a missing person report with the Govindpur thana on August 23, with Mukesh Bhatt listed as a suspect. However, a month passed with little police action on the matter.

Notably, the situation took a turn when Akshay Lal met with Senior Superintendent of Police, Kaushal Kishore, on Friday. This meeting prompted Kishore to instruct the Govindpur thana Officer-in-Charge, Amit Kumar, to expedite efforts to locate Reena Devi. Subsequently, Mukesh Bhatt was detained.

Amit Kumar, OC of Govindpur thana, revealed the harrowing details: “As Mukesh was the prime suspect, we brought him in for questioning. Under interrogation, he confessed to everything. Mukesh admitted to strangling Reena Devi after abducting her from her residence on the night of August 22. He later led us to the location along the Govindpur-Hurlung road where he had disposed of the body a month ago.”

The motive behind Reena Devi’s murder, according to Amit Kumar, was her insistence that Mukesh marry her, a commitment he was unwilling to make. It was this pressure that allegedly drove Mukesh to remove her from her home on some pretext and ultimately take her life.

Authorities have already arrested Mukesh Bhatt, and a DNA analysis of the recovered skeleton is in progress to confirm its identity.