Three days after a 23-year-old woman was buried without a post-mortem in a village in Chhattisgarh's Korba district, police exhumed her body following a complaint by her family alleging murder. The case, centred on Ghurai Bai of Chhirhut village under Shyang police station limits, has set off a confrontation between the woman's natal family and her husband, with the two sides offering starkly different accounts of how she died.

Ghurai, originally from Kuma village in Raigarh district, had been married to Dilip Baiga of Chhirhut for about three years. The couple has a one-and-a-half-year-old child. She died on 16 June. The following day, her body was buried without any post-mortem examination — a fact that immediately raised suspicions among her relatives when they arrived and learned of the circumstances.

Her family filed a written complaint at Shyang police station, alleging that Dilip had frequently quarrelled with and beaten Ghurai over suspected infidelity, and that her death was not natural. They accused him of killing her and hastily disposing of the body to conceal the crime.

Police took the complaint seriously. On 19 June, a team comprising the Sub-Divisional Officer of Police, the station in-charge, the Scene of Crime unit and administrative officials reached the village and supervised the exhumation. The body was retrieved in the presence of a large number of villagers, a panchnama was conducted, and the remains were sent for post-mortem.

Dilip Baiga has denied all allegations. He maintained that his wife fell suddenly ill and died of a natural illness, calling the murder accusations entirely baseless.

The Additional Superintendent of Police confirmed that Shyang police have recorded statements from the deceased's family and registered an unnatural death case. The actual cause of death, he said, will be determined only after post-mortem and forensic examination reports are received, and further legal action will follow accordingly.

The child's future has also become a point of concern in the village. Ghurai's family has said that if the investigation confirms foul play, they will demand justice not just for her but for the infant left behind.