Janakpur, March 2 -- On Saturday morning, the Dhanusha police were notified that a house had been locked for a week at Baniniya settlement of Laxminiya Rural Municipality-5, about 12 km north of Janakpur. Neighbours were surprised about how a house that often had raucous quarrels had suddenly gone silent for days.

When a police team broke into the house, there was loose soil in the prayer room. Beneath the soil, they found a woman's body. According to the District Police Office in Dhanusha, the body was of 20-year-old Anjali Devi Yadav, wife of Hari Ram Yadav of Laxminiya-5.

Anjali's body was found in a decomposed state, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Barun Bahadur Singh, who is also the spokesperson of the Dhanusha police. Prelim...