Her husband went to jail for her murder. Now, Bihar woman found alive in Jharkhand

A woman identified as Shakuntala Devi, whose disappearance in 2014 sparked a murder investigation in Rohtas district, Bihar, was found alive in Labhari village, Garhwa district, Jharkhand. Police, acting on a tip received by her father‑in‑law Dilip Mehta, located her living under the name Kanti Devi with a man identified as Rattu Singh and escorted her back to Rohtas for court appearance.

The original case began when Shakuntala’s brother reported her missing on August 20, 2014, after she left her marital home amid repeated dowry‑related disputes. A body recovered from a canal near Khanda village was identified by her brother and a local chowkidar as hers, leading to a post‑mortem, a murder charge, and the arrest of her husband Arun Mehta, his father Dilip, and brother‑in‑law Govind Kumar. The prosecution initially invoked Section 498A of the IPC and the Dowry Prohibition Act, later adding murder provisions. The Mehta family later settled the matter for Rs 8 lakh, selling a three‑and‑a‑half kattha parcel of ancestral land to raise the sum, after which the case was closed.

The discovery overturns a decade‑long narrative that Shakuntala had been dead, raising questions about the handling of dowry‑related complaints and the reliability of forensic identification in missing‑person cases. Her family, who had endured years of legal battles and the loss of property, now faces the prospect of reopening investigations, while authorities in both Bihar and Jharkhand are likely to review procedural gaps that allowed the misidentification to persist for so long.