After strangulating his wife and two-year-old daughter to death on Saturday night, a 30-year-old Adarsh Nagar resident threw his spouse’s body from the second floor of his house. Later, the accused Ajit called the police and has been arrested.
Parents of Ajit’s wife Shalini (28) claim she was tortured over dowry and also the fact that she had given birth to a daughter. Ajit, however, told the police that it was his wife’s querulous nature that resulted in heated arguments between them and ultimately compelled him to commit the murders.
Neighbours confirmed that there were, indeed, frequent fights between Ajit and Shalini but it was the latter who was often at the receiving end. She was beaten up and was refused food by her husband, they said. Sanjeeta, a neighbour, said the couple’s relationship had gone from bad to worse since the birth of their daughter Vanshika in 2012.
“On Saturday night, too, the two had a fight and we heard the woman screaming for help. But since such fights were frequent and Ajit resisted any intervention from outsiders, we did not step in. I did not have any inkling about what was to happen next,” she said.
Others said it was around 11 p.m. that the victim’s voice was last heard. Around 15 to 20 minutes later, some of the area residents saw Ajit holding his wife’s body upside down from the balcony of the second floor house where they lived. “Even as I asked him what was going on, he threw his wife’s body which fell on a parked ice cream cart before landing on the ground,” said another neighbour on condition of anonymity.
What the neighbours saw next was Ajit coming downstairs holding his daughter Vanshika’s body. Meanwhile, he had informed the police, who reached the spot and arrested him.
The couple lived with Ajit’s family members including his parents and a married elder brother along with his wife and children. However, all but Ajit’s immediate family had left for their native place a few days ago. Police said that they were also probing whether the travel plans were made because the other members of the family were aware of Ajit’s plans.
Neighbours also alleged that the family had always encouraged Ajit to torture his wife, who was even driven out of the house on a winter night in 2012. “She had to plead her way back into the house then,” recalled Sanjeeta.
A sub-divisional magistrate level inquiry has been ordered as the couple had not completed seven years of marriage.
