In a chilling incident in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, a man allegedly killed his wife at the behest of his lover and tried to pass it off as a highway robbery, police said.
Om Saran (38), the accused, has been arrested and sent to judicial custody, they said.
After inconsistencies in Sarna's initial statement raised red flags, his call records were checked which revealed that he was in touch with a woman named Mannat, prompting police to dig deeper, SSP (Bareilly) Anurag Arya said.
The probe eventually led to the unravelling of the murder conspiracy, Arya said.
Saran, a resident of Badaun district, has been booked under sections 103 (murder), 230 (fabricating false evidence), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), and 240 (giving false information) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), ASP (South) Anshika Verma said in a late-night press briefing on Thursday.
The accused initially told the police that on the night of July 31, he was returning home with his wife Amarvati on a motorcycle when they were attacked near Kanthari village by 3-4 unidentified men, who looted their cash and jewellery and fatally assaulted his wife.
Saran claimed that the attackers stole Amarvati's mangalsutra, gold earrings, and about Rs 10,000 in cash before fleeing.
Police registered an FIR based on Sarna's written complaint.
As the investigation progressed, police began to suspect Saran's version of events. Upon rigorous questioning, he admitted that he secretly married Mannat, who pressured him to eliminate his wife if he wanted to continue their relationship, the ASP said.
On July 30, Saran took Amarvati on a trip to Purnagiri as part of the plan. On their way back, he stopped at his in-laws' house in Motipur, where he borrowed a motorcycle and a sharp-edged weapon (‘banka') from his brother-in-law, Bhagwandas, Verma said.
He stopped the bike near a deserted spot in Kanthari village around 12:15 am, and brutally attacked Amarvati with the ‘banka', killing her on the spot.
To make it look like a robbery, he removed her earrings, mangalsutra, and Rs 10,000 from his pocket, and concealed them in nearby bushes.
He then called his brother-in-law and a friend, Anil Yadav, and arranged for an ambulance, pretending to be rushing his wife for treatment, Verma said.
Police later recovered the murder weapon, and the hidden jewellery and cash based on the accused's disclosure. A mobile phone was also seized during the search, the officer said.
Police are now investigating Mannat's involvement in the conspiracy, she added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
