A former bank manager in India's Madhya Pradesh state was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly strangling his wife to death at their residence in Indore, the police said.
Amitesh Pateria, 36, allegedly planted a dead cobra's fangs on the hand of his wife Shivani's body, 35, to pass off the crime as a snake bite, an officer said.
"Pateria allegedly killed his wife following a family feud on December 1. The accused then planted the dead cobra's fangs on the hand of his wife's corpse to mislead police into believing that she died of snake bite," said a senior police officer.
However, a postmortem report revealed that the 35-year-old woman was strangled death.
"Pateria had purchased a black desert cobra from Alwar in Rajasthan for 5,000 rupees ($70) around 11 days before murdering his wife. He had hidden the snake in a cupboard," the police officer said.
Pateria killed the cobra after murdering his wife to destroy evidence, he said.
Apart from Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, a case was also registered under Wildlife Protection Act for killing a snake.
Pateria's sister Richa Chaturvedi, 38, and their father Omprakash Pateria, 73, were also arrested on the charge of abetting the crime.