Man decapitates wife with scythe after row over dinner in east India city

A man handed himself into a police station carrying his wife's head and confessed to killing her in an argument over food.

Rintu Karmakar told detectives that he tried to decapitate his wife, Muna, with an axe while she was asleep in bed because she had not cooked him his evening meal.

"I spent all day working and when I got home once again she was asleep in bed after having drunk too much," according to the Indian Express. "Nothing had been done of the household chores. There wasn't even any dinner for me."

When his attempt failed, he beheaded her with a scythe. He then cooked his own meal and threw his wife's head in the back of his truck before driving to the police station to make a confession to her murder.

According to police, Karmakar was so calm and relaxed when telling them of his crime that they doubted he was telling the truth. But when shown his wife's decapitated head, they arrested him and he remains in custody while police investigate the incident in Jamshedpur, India.

Beheadings are seen by psychologists as a lasting desecration and a final insult to the victim.

In Nalasopara, a suburb of India's commercial capital, Mumbai, a 50-year-old Indian woman was stabbed and decapitated in a ritual killing by six people. The killers included "tantrik" spiritual leaders, who are often accused of black magic.

The killers included "tantrik" spiritual leaders, who are often accused of black magic.

All six men were arrested for the killing the day after the western Indian state assembly of Maharashtra passed an anti-superstition bill.

The murdered woman was identified as Kalavati Gupta, when her son recognised her headless body in photographs.