A MAN accused of murdering his mother-in-law told police how he chopped her into pieces with a cleaver and dissolved her body parts in caustic soda, a court heard.

But Mohammed Arshad, 37, told officers during interviews that he had not intended to kill Zainab Begum, 56, of Burnley Road, Accrington, and only cut her up because he was scared, the jury was told.

He claimed he put some of the woman's bones into bin bags and travelled on two buses to Manchester before dumping the remains in the industrial bins of takeaways.

Arshad claimed he picked Mrs Begum, a mother-of-six, up on January 13 this year and threw her on to a mattress out of anger because she made a pass at him, the court was told.

But Arshad, who ran Millennium takeaway, Church Street, Accrington, with his brother, told police she banged her head on the wall accidentally when she landed and died as a result, Preston Crown Court was told.

He said during the interviews that he tried to resuscitate her but then "cried for two hours" before beginning to chop her up, the jury heard. Arshad, of Crumpsall, Manchester, who denies murder, told police: "I thought about what to do. I lifted her up and I dragged her along the carpet and lifted her into the bath.

"I went to the takeaway and had some tools that I had taken in for me to do some work at the takeaway.

"I went back and picked up the tools and started cutting her in pieces.

"I used caustic soda, bleach and vinegar - whatever came into my mind at that time which might melt or disintegrate the pieces.

"Very small pieces of her were left which I picked up and put in bags."

Arshad then told police that he phoned his brother Mohammed Sharif Khan, 37, also of Crumpsall, and asked him to take him to the Accrington takeaway.

But, Arshad added in the interviews, that his brother had no idea what he had done.

He told police that he put the bags in a box and then in the boot of his brother's Honda Accord.

Arshad claimed that he stored the body parts upstairs in the takeaway, then went to work in the kitchen downstairs.

The following day, he told police, he got his brother to take him back to Burnley Road with the box.

Arshad said: "I put the remains in a bucket and poured in ten bottles of caustic soda. I then poured the liquid down the grate and put the bones left in three to four bags."

Arshad claims he went on two buses to Manchester and dumped the bags in the industrial bins of takeaways in Manchester.

Khan is also on trial accused of helping his brother dispose of the body, a charge he denies.

(Proceeding)