New Delhi
A 26-year-old man and his 23-year-old brother were arrested for allegedly murdering the former’s wife at their house in Ghazipur early Thursday, after she refused to have physical relations with the brother and scuffled with her husband for having an extramarital affair with a neighbour, police said on Friday.
Police said the two of them taped the mouth of the 21-year-old woman, suffocated her by wrapping a plastic bag around her head and then smothered her with a pillow. A case of murder and cruelty was registered, an officer said.
“The brothers killed the woman because she refused their demands. She also rejected their proposal for her 13-year-old sister to marry her brother-in-law once she turned 18,” a senior officer aware of the developments said.
Deputy commissioner of police (east) Rajiv Kumar said that the Patparganj Industrial Area (PIA) police was informed about the incident that took place at Gopal Gali around 3pm on Thursday. The deceased stayed there with her husband, brother-in-law, and 19-year-old sister-in-law.
“The father, from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr, told the personnel that she married the 26-year-old man last October, two years after his first wife had abandoned him. Since the woman died within seven years of the marriage, the matter was reported to the executive magistrate for inquiry. The magistrate also visited the house,” said Kumar.
Police said an autopsy confirmed murder and a case was registered under sections 103 (murder) and 85 (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Investigators said that the brothers initially denied their involvement, but then confessed when presented with the facts of the crime. Investigation revealed that the brother-in-law had also been married, and that the wives of the two brothers were also siblings. However, they left their marital home due to domestic harassment and the elder brother married a woman from a different caste from an economically poor family in Bulandshahr.
“After the marriage, the man’s second wife learnt that he was in a relationship with a woman in his neighbourhood. She often raised objections. Her brother-in-law was allegedly sexually harassing her and even her husband had been asking her to fulfil his brother’s demands. But she was not ready for it,” an investigator said.
Police said an altercation broke out between the couple on Wednesday night when the victim reportedly spotted her husband exiting their neighbour’s house.
The woman’s uncle said that around 8am on Thursday, the husband telephonically informed them that she was unwell. “Half an hour later, he called again and told us that she was dead. He wanted only one person to come. But when we arrived, we saw injuries on her body and informed the police because we suspected that she was murdered,” the uncle said.
