Guwahati: A 30-year-old man arrested for allegedly murdering and beheading his wife in Guwahati died on Monday after jumping from a moving police vehicle while being taken to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for a blood test around 3 am, officials said.
Ramanuj Goswami, the prime accused in the September 3 killing of his 25-year-old wife, Riya Talukdar, sustained fatal injuries when he jumped from the vehicle near the Narakasur Pahar area and fell into a gorge, Hatigaon Police said.
Goswami was being taken from Hatigaon Police Station to GMCH for a blood test around 3 am when he attacked the escorting team and jumped from the vehicle, officials said. He fell into a gorge, sustained severe head injuries and was rushed to GMCH, where doctors declared him dead, reports said.
GMCH Superintendent Devajit Choudhury said Goswami was brought to the hospital at 3.41 am as a traffic accident victim and was brought dead. There were no bullet injuries on the body, he added.
Police clarified that Goswami died from injuries sustained in the fall. His body was later shifted to the GMCH morgue, and officials said they were examining the circumstances of the incident.
How It Unfolded
The incident happened as a police team was transporting Goswami for medical examinations, including a blood test, in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, Hatigaon Police said. According to police, Goswami suddenly assaulted the escorting personnel and jumped from the moving vehicle in an apparent attempt to flee custody. He fell into a gorge and suffered fatal head injuries, police said.
Background To The Murder
Goswami was arrested after neighbours complained of a foul smell from the couple’s third-floor flat at Anjali Griha in Guwahati’s Basisthapur/Beltola area, prompting police to visit on September 6. He subsequently surrendered before police and confessed to killing his 25-year-old wife, Riya Talukdar, on September 3 following a heated argument over his suspicion of an extramarital affair.
Investigators recovered Riya’s decapitated body on the floor and her severed head, wrapped in a black polythene bag, inside a refrigerator. Some fingers were also recovered from the bag, officials said.
A blood-stained machete, suspected to be the weapon, and empty alcohol bottles were seized from the flat; Goswami told police he was intoxicated during the crime.
On September 8, during a crime-scene visit, Goswami allegedly expressed no remorse and threatened to kill a man he called his wife’s “sugar daddy” if released, police said.
He was booked under Sections 103(1) (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and was in seven-day police remand.
Relatives of Riya told police that Goswami was a drug addict, had undisclosed health issues and had been arrested in 2019 in connection with a financial fraud. Authorities said they were verifying those claims as part of the investigation.