Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 26 (IANS): A man connived with a doctor to eliminate his wife, a government school teacher, in an attempt to claim an insurance amount of Rs 50 lakh.

They gave the wife sleeping pills, smothered her with a pillow and stored the body in a freezer for a day.

An image of the doctor choking his wife with a pillow has now sent the duo behind the bars. The image was apparently clicked by the man himself.

According to the police, the incident took place on February 20 in Meerut where Sanjay Luthra, 42, a businessman, had hatched a plot to eliminate his wife Chanda, 40, and connived with a doctor named Rajat Bhardwaj who owed Rs 1.35 lakh to Luthra.

Luthra allegedly agreed to waive off the debt if Bhardwaj killed his wife.

Inspector Ram Sanjeevan of crime branch, whose team was investigating the case, said, "Though he was given a clean chit by the local Nauchandi Thana, we continued the probe and took custody of Sanjay Luthra's mobile phone and recovered a few deleted pictures -- one of which showed a woman being smothered with a pillow."

During questioning, it came to light that Luthra had actually shot the photograph of Bhardwaj and deleted it when the doctor confronted him.

Meanwhile, Chanda's family had sensed foul play since the beginning.

Her mother Sunita Devi said, "Sanjay was trying to get rid of Chanda for some time and had even taken the divorce route. But Chanda did not agree to the divorce. She had visited a relative at 11 p.m. on Saturday, and was killed on the same night. We tried to convince police at Nauchandi, but they failed to take any action."

The post mortem report of the victim was "inconclusive".