Darbhanga, Aug. 10: The recovery of a pregnant woman’s body underneath her bedroom in her in-laws’ house has sent shockwaves at Baheri village under Singhwara police station.

After digging the bedroom, police recovered the body of Musturi Begam (26) from her in-law’s residence at Baheri today. She was killed and buried under her bedroom on Sunday by her husband Lal Mohammad and his family members, the police said.

Begam got married to Lal four years ago and sources said quarrels on petty issues were frequent in the family.

Senior superintendent of police Vikas Vaibhav said: “Police, on a tip-off, conducted a raid at Lal’s residence and recovered the body of his wife Musturi Begam. She was strangled to death and her body was buried under the bedroom. The body has been sent to Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem.”

Sources said Lal used to pressurise his wife to accompany him to Delhi where he works. However, because of his meagre income, his wife refused to go to Delhi, which eventually cost her life. The police said that Lal fled the village for Delhi soon after committing the crime.

Deputy superintendent of police, headquarters, Shailesh Kumar Sinha said: “It is a case of murder but whether it was done for dowry is not yet clear. Parents of Begam will soon come to Darbhanga from Muzaffarpur and their statements will be recorded. Only after that it would be possible to say whether it is a dowry death or not.”

Lal Babu Yadav, the village head of Ashchhua panchayat under which Baheri falls, told The Telegraph: “I called the police when I came to know from a child that a woman was buried in the bedroom of Lal. Later, I chased Begam’s mother-in-law Makina Khatun and caught her before handing her over to the police.”

Yadav added: “The woman confessed that her son had strangled his wife before burying her in the bedroom and had fled to Delhi.”

Begam used to live in the village, while her in-laws lived in Delhi. They had come to Darbhanga for a few days. Begam’s in-laws wanted her to accompany them to Delhi but she denied going to Delhi, the police said.