Man murders wife at southwest Delhi home, stages suicide

NEW DELHI: A man murdered his wife and attempted to pass it off as a suicide in southwest Delhi's Mahipalpur. After the post-mortem found signs that she had been killed by strangulation, police interrogated the woman's husband, who confessed to the crime, stating that he was drunk after attending a party and had an altercation with his wife, which led to the murder.

Police received a control room alert on March 6 about an alleged hanging death. On reaching the spot at K Block in Mahipalpur, the police team found that a woman named Kalpana, aged 28, had hanged herself. Her body had already been taken down by her family members and taken to a Vasant Kunj hospital, where she was declared brought dead. The deceased had married Amit Kumar Sehrawat about six years ago, and she had a five-year-old child from the marriage. He is employed by a private company in Gurgaon.

Proceedings under Section 176 (inquiry by magistrate into cause of death) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita were carried out. The statements of Kalpana's parents were recorded before the tehsildar of Vasant Kunj, in which they and other relatives stated that there was a quarrel between Kalpana and her husband but they didn't level any allegations about dowry torture. Police sources said that on March 8, the post-mortem of the deceased was conducted at Safdarjung Hospital. The medical team that carried out the autopsy opined that "death is due to asphyxia consequent upon ante-mortem ligature strangulation. However, viscera is preserved to rule out any concomitant poisoning. All the injuries are ante-mortem in nature. Injury Nos. 2 to 11 are a result of blunt force impact".

The parents of the woman were informed about the findings and a case was registered. An investigation was initiated. Police sources said Sehrawat was also interrogated, and he eventually admitted that on March 5, he, along with his family, had gone to a marriage function at Masoodpur in Vasant Kunj, where he consumed liquor. He had an altercation with his wife after he became heavily intoxicated and was dropped at his house by his cousin. After a while, Kalpana too returned home, upon which Sehrawat began quarrelling with her about some domestic issues. He beat his wife, and during the scuffle, he strangled her. Finding that she had died, hanged his wife's body with a rope made of multicoloured cloth, the cops said. He then acted as if his wife Kalpana had hanged herself. However, the post-mortem findings nailed Sehrawat's lies and when the police questioning prompted him to confess his crime, he was arrested. Further investigation is underway.