‘Threatened to push me into prostitution’: UP woman, lover strangle sleeping husband to death, plant snake to fake bite

MEERUT: A 25-year-old man was strangled to death by his wife and her lover, who then placed a venomous snake beneath his corpse to disguise the killing as a snakebite in Akbarpur Sadat village, Behsuma region of Meerut, police said on Thursday. The cops uncovered the truth after a postmortem revealed that Amit Kashyap, also known as Mickey, was murdered.
Amit was discovered dead on his bed with a viper nearby in the early hours of Sunday. At first glance, the 10 snakebite marks scattered across Amit's body seemed a straightforward explanation for his sudden death. But within hours, as police and forensic teams took a closer look, the truth behind Amit's death began to unravel.
During questioning, his wife Ravita, 24, confessed to plotting the murder along with her lover Amardeep Singh, 28. The duo was arrested late on Wednesday. Meerut SP (rural) Rakesh Kumar Mishra said, "Ravita had an extramarital affair with Amardeep, who was a friend of her husband. When Amit found out about their relationship, frequent arguments started occurring between the husband and wife. She then carefully plotted his murder."
Ravita told the police that Amardeep had bought the snake for Rs 1,000 from a snake charmer. After strangling Amit, she placed the snake under his body to mislead investigators. Initially, reports indicated ten snakebites, but the post-mortem cast doubt on this theory, confirming death by strangulation. Under interrogation, both Ravita and Amardeep admitted their involvement, explaining that the snake had bitten Amit several times after death due to agitation from being trapped beneath the corpse.
Following her arrest, Ravita admitted her role explicitly, yet placed blame firmly upon her deceased husband. "Amit abused me constantly," she told investigators. "He threatened to push me into prostitution. It was Amit who introduced me to Amardeep, and later threatened my life, which drove me to plan his murder. I held his arms down, while Amardeep choked him to death."
The discovery of Amit's actual cause of death has left Akbarpur Sadat uneasy. Yet again, behind closed doors and beneath appearances, another dark domestic narrative had quietly played in a city already reeling from similarly disturbing domestic killings. Just last month, Meerut had been shocked by another brutal murder — 29-year-old Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Rajput, whose dismembered remains were concealed by his spouse and her lover in a drum filled with cement.