Solving Crime: How a trishul tattoo on a woman’s headless corpse helped police solve her murder

Anjali Singh’s husband and brother-in-law were arrested after the police identified her with the help of a tattoo on her arm. Her husband allegedly confessed to murdering her during an argument.

Anjali Singh had a distinctive tattoo on her hand.

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They beheaded her, stuffed her headless body in a suitcase and flung it into the sea, believing that they had covered their tracks well, the police said. But Mintu Singh and his brother Chunchun forgot that Anjali Singh had a distinctive tattoo on her hand. It was this tattoo that helped the police identify her, and subsequently, arrest the brothers on the charges of murdering the 23-year-old.

According to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police, at around 8 am on June 2, conservancy workers deployed to clean Uttan Beach in the coastal town of Uttan in Maharashtra’s Thane district spotted a bag. When they opened it, they saw that it contained the body of a woman. They immediately informed the local police station.

The police found that the bag contained a headless body of a woman. It was cut into two pieces and the tattoo of a trishul (trident), damru (pellet drum) and Om (in Hindi) were seen inscribed on the woman’s left arm. The police pinned their hopes on the tattoo to identify the woman.

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After visiting nearly 40 tattoo artists, the police zeroed in on the person who had done the tattoo. Based on his questioning, the police learnt that the woman was Anjali Singh, a resident of Naigaon. When the police went to her residence, they found that her husband Mintu (31) was missing. Mintu worked as a security guard and hailed from Bihar, a police officer said.

A police team started looking for Mintu and found him when he was about to board an outstation from Dadar railway station on June 9.

According to the police, Mintu confessed to the murder, which he said he committed on May 24 after he got into a fight with Anjali, suspecting her of having an extra-marital affair. During the course of the fight, he allegedly ended up hitting her head on the wall due to which she passed away, the police said. Later, Mintu sought the help of his elder brother Chunchun (35) in disposing of Anjali’s body.