Bhopal: Greed Smothered Retired Engineer In His Sleep

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The morning of August 9, 2024, seemed uneventful in Shivnagar Phase-3. Inside House No. 194, 63-year-old Jageshwar Prasad, a retired railway engineer, was believed to be sleeping. By mid-morning, he was dead.

His son-in-law Bharat Choudhary rushed him to People’s Hospital, telling doctors, “Since morning he hasn’t moved. Please check him.” After examination, they declared him dead.

At first glance, it looked like a natural death. Wife Premalata wept bitterly, while her son Jai stood silently beside her. Both insisted Jageshwar had died in his sleep. No one suspected foul play, except his children from a previous marriage. They remembered him as healthy and cheerful. Their doubts raised one big question: how could a man like him just die overnight?

Police from Chhola Mandir station visited the house with a forensic team. They found no signs of forced entry, violence or theft. Everything pointed to a natural death, until the post-mortem changed everything.

The report revealed the shocking truth: death caused by asphyxia due to smothering. This was no sudden illness. It was cold-blooded murder.

With this clue, police intensified the investigation. Under Inspector Suresh Chandra Nagar, Premalata and Jai were interrogated. Their answers sounded scripted. Under pressure, Jai finally broke down.

“At six in the morning, while he was asleep, I pressed a pillow on his face,” he confessed. “My mother helped me hold it down. When it was over, we called Bharat to make it look natural.”

The motive was chillingly simple: money. After retiring from the Railway Coach Factory in 2021, Jageshwar had received Rs 40 lakh in PF benefits. Rs 10 lakh had already gone into building a housein Premalata’s name.

But she wanted control over the remaining money and monthly pension. She feared that Jageshwar’s children from his first wife would demand their rightful share. Driven by greed, she and her son hatched a deadly plan.

On August 9, while Jageshwar slept, they held a pillow over his face until he stopped breathing. They then staged a scene of sudden illness and called Bharat to create an alibi. But the autopsy revealed the truth their words couldn't hide.

Police registered a case of murder under relevant sections of the BNS Act. Both were arrested. The case shocked Bhopal, not just because a man was murdered in his own bed, but because it was done by those he trusted most.

Murder for money

Victim: Jageshwar Prasad, 63, retired railway engineer

Date of crime: August 9, 2024

Murderers: Second wife Premalata and her son Jai

Motive: To seize pension money and property worth Rs 40 lakh