RAIPUR: A murder investigation in Chhattisgarh’s Bemetara district took a chilling, macabre turn, after the police arrested a 42-year-old man on charges of having sex with the body of a 50-year-old woman he murdered, before dismembering the corpse and dumping the remains in a river in a bid to erase evidence of the crime.The accused, a repeat offender previously convicted in the murder of another woman in 2017, was arrested on Friday after confessing to the crime.Necrophilia victim’s severed remains found by her sonPolice identified the accused as Ramprasad Sonwani alias Bengali of Sonpuri village. According to investigating officers, he broke into the house of the 50-year-old woman on July 6 night and attempted to sexually assault her. When she resisted, he struck her with a spade, killing her.He then committed necrophilia, a condition marked by sexual attraction to dead bodies, before slicing off the woman’s lifeless remains with a saw, only to perform a sexual act again, the police said, adding that the accused kept the remains overnight in his hut before throwing them into Shivnath river following night. The case came to light after the victim’s son found two bundles containing what he claimed to be his mother’s severed remains, wrapped in household clothes and dumped near the Amaraiya stream flowing into Shivnath river. A murder case was registered, triggering an investigation involving forensic experts, a dog squad, drones, boats and searchlights.Bemetara SP Trilok Bansal said the son’s statement, combined with technical and circumstantial evidence led them to Sonwani, who confessed to the ghastly crime.He also admitted to stealing Rs 2,500 from the victim’s house before fleeing, the police said, adding that the murder weapon, along with the saw with which he chopped up the body and other incriminating material were recovered based on the accused’s disclosure. Additional charges were invoked under BNS sections, police said, adding that the accused was produced before a magistrate, who remanded him to judicial custody.
