A woman who was presumed murdered in India 12 years ago has been found alive and living with another man in Jharkhand, reopening a case that had already led to the imprisonment of her husband.
Shakuntala Devi was traced to Labhari village in Garhwa district after information about her whereabouts reached her family in July 2026. Police subsequently located and apprehended her before taking her back to Rohtas in Bihar.
Brandspur Brand News reports that Shakuntala disappeared from her marital home in Rohtas district in 2014. Her brother reported her missing, telling police that she had previously complained about alleged harassment by her in laws over dowry demands.
Two days after her disappearance, police recovered the body of an unidentified woman from a canal near Khanda village. Shakuntala’s brother and a local official reportedly identified the remains as hers, following which a post mortem examination was conducted and murder charges were added to the case.
Her husband, Arun Mehta, was jailed in connection with the presumed murder, while his father, Dilip, his brother, Govind Kumar, and other members of the family were also arrested over the case.
Mehta was later granted bail as the legal proceedings continued. According to his lawyer, the case eventually resulted in a financial settlement in which Shakuntala’s family demanded Rs 800,000 to resolve the dispute.
Mehta’s family alleged that they were forced to sell ancestral land to raise the money. The circumstances changed in July this year when Mehta’s father in law reportedly received information that Shakuntala had been seen in Jharkhand.
Family members travelled to the location and recognised the woman as Shakuntala before reporting the discovery to the Rohtas police. Investigators subsequently traced her to Labhari village.
Police said the woman had been living under another name, Kanti Devi, and was staying with another man.
She has now been produced before a court in Sasaram to face allegations including fraud and criminal conspiracy, while the investigation into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance remains ongoing.
Authorities are also investigating the identity of the woman whose body was recovered from the canal in 2014. The police are seeking to establish how the remains came to be identified as Shakuntala’s and why her brother believed the body was that of his sister.
The police said legal action would be taken against anyone found to have committed an offence in connection with the case.
