Indian Woman Found Alive 12 Years After She Was Presumed Dead, Husband Had Spent Time in Jail for Her ‘Murder’

A bizarre case in India has taken a dramatic turn after a woman who was presumed murdered in 2014 was found alive 12 years later, living under another name with another man in a neighbouring state.

The woman, identified in reports as Shakuntala Devi, also known as Kanti Devi, disappeared from her marital home in Bihar’s Rohtas district in 2014. Her brother later reported her missing and alleged that she had been subjected to harassment over dowry. 

Two days after the missing-person complaint, an unidentified woman’s body was recovered from a canal near Khanda village. Shakuntala’s brother and a local village official reportedly identified the body as hers. A post-mortem was conducted, and the case subsequently became a murder investigation. 

Her husband, Arun Mehta, his father Dilip Mehta, his brother Govind Kumar and other members of the family were implicated. Arun spent time in jail, while the family endured years of legal proceedings. The family has also alleged that ancestral property had to be sold as part of a settlement connected to the case. 

But in 2026, the case took an extraordinary turn.

Police received information that Shakuntala was allegedly alive and living in Labhari village in Jharkhand’s Garhwa district. Investigators traced a woman there who was reportedly living under the name Kanti Devi with a man identified as Rattu Singh. Police brought her back to Rohtas and produced her before a court in Sasaram. 

The discovery has now reopened the entire case.

The biggest question facing investigators is: if the woman found in the canal in 2014 was not Shakuntala, whose body was it?

Police have said they are investigating the case again from the beginning, including how the unidentified body came to be identified as Shakuntala’s. Authorities have also initiated proceedings against Shakuntala over allegations including fraud and criminal conspiracy; those allegations remain subject to investigation. 

The case therefore raises two major mysteries: how Shakuntala remained unidentified for 12 years, and who was the woman whose body was buried as hers in 2014.