A man from Karnataka's Kodagu area, jailed for allegedly murdering his missing wife, was proven innocent when his wife was found alive in Madikeri. He was initially arrested based on verbal identification of skeletal remains.
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00:00Misidentified body, wrongful arrest, and two years behind bars.
00:10This is the story of Suresh, a tribal man from Karnataka who moaned his wife, performed
00:14her last rites, and then spent nearly two years in prison accused of her murder.
00:18But his wife, Malige, wasn't dead.
00:20She was alive, well, and found casually dining at a restaurant in Madikere.
00:24Suresh lived in Basavanahalli, a village in Kushalnagar taluk of Karnataka's Kodagu
00:29district.
00:30In 2021, his wife, Malige, suddenly went missing.
00:33Suresh filed a complaint.
00:35There were no clues, no leads.
00:37A year later in 2022, skeletal remains were found near the Betadapura police station in
00:41neighboring Mysuru district.
00:43Police suspected it was Malige.
00:45They allegedly pressurized Suresh and his mother-in-law, Gauri, into identifying the
00:49remains as Malige despite no DNA confirmation.
00:52There was no forensic match, but based on this supposed identification alone, police
00:56arrested Suresh.
00:58He was charged with murder, Suresh was thrown behind bars.
01:01He waited, he grieved, and he held on to the hope that the truth would come out.
01:06It wasn't until a court-ordered DNA test proved that the remains did not belong to Malige
01:10that Suresh was granted bail and released.
01:13But the real twist came on 3rd April 2025.
01:16Suresh's friends spotted a familiar face checking into a hotel in Madikere.
01:20It was Malige.
01:21She was alive, she was healthy, and she wasn't alone.
01:24Her lover was with her.
01:25The friends acted fast.
01:27They took photos and alerted the authorities.
01:29Malige was taken into custody and produced before a court in Mysuru.
01:33The case triggered outrage.
01:35How did the police arrest a man without confirmed identity of the body?
01:39Why was there no proper investigation?
01:41Was it negligence or something worse?
01:43Authorities are now under pressure to answer.
01:46Investigations are underway to trace Malige's movements over the past three years and to
01:49uncover what really happened in this chilling tale of loss, betrayal and a system gone wrong.