A 24-year-old man who allegedly hatched a conspiracy to murder his wife in Ranhola here in July last has been arrested.
On July 21 last year, Farhan, a resident of Vikash Nagar, had approached the police and told them that his wife Abhilasha, who left home three days ago, had not returned.
Even as the police were investigating the case, another complaint was received from Abhilasha’s mother Santosh Devi a month later. In her complaint, the victim’s mother expressed suspicion about Farhan’s role in Abhilasha’s disappearance.
“Following this, Farhan was summoned to join the enquiry. Farhan, however, did not comply and remained untraceable. He had even applied for anticipatory bail in the court which rejected his application,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (West) V. Renganathan.
Mr. Renganathan said that even though Farhan joined the enquiry after some days, he couldn’t give convincing answers to questions put before him. Given the circumstances, a case was registered on the basis of complaint filed by the victim’s mother on February 3.
During the course of investigation, Farhan was interrogated again and he purportedly confessed to his crime.
“He revealed that he had come in contact with Abhislasha while working in a jeans factory as a tailor and they started living together. He, however, suspected that Abhilasha had illicit relationship with another person which would lead to frequent quarrel. Abhilasha also mounted pressure on him to marry her and threatened to implicate him in a criminal case, if he did not give in to her demand,” said Mr. Renganathan.
Last March, Farhan married Abhilasha. Later he along with his cousin Sanu hatched a conspiracy to eliminate his wife. Sanu also introduced Farhan to a contract killer Mushir in Aligarh. Farhan allegedly paid a sum of Rs. 50,000 to murder his wife.
On July 19, Sanu and Farhan took Abhilasha to an under-construction building in Aligarh where Mushir and his accomplice were already present.
“Mushir killed Abhilasha by strangulating her with a rope. Mushir, Farhan and others then dumped the body near Mehrawal railway station in Aligarh before fleeing,” said Mr. Renganathan.
Records available at the SSP office at Aligarh confirmed that on July 20, the station master of Mehrawal railway station had lodged a complaint regarding a body found on the railway tracks, said the police.
