A 38-year-old Koparkhairane resident has been arrested for allegedly killing his wife over suspicion of an extramarital affair. The accused, Dharma Gowda, killed his wife Rekha (32) around 7.30 a.m. on Tuesday with an iron rod at home.
Nabbed in Turbhe
“At around 3 pm, we received an information that there was something suspicious going on at a flat in Sector 12, Koparkhairane. We visited the spot but found the flat locked. We called for a duplicate key maker, opened the flat and found a body draped in a sheet. A rod covered in blood was also found at the spot,” Senior Police Inspector Shivaji Awate from Koparkhairane police station said. Gowda, the primary suspect in the case, was nabbed from Janta market in Turbhe by evening.
Frequent fights
Married for nearly 12 years, the Gowda couple fought frequently over Rekha’s alleged affair. Mr. Awate said, “The accused told us his wife always threatened to leave him for her boyfriend, and he insisted she stay back as they had two children. On Tuesday morning, a similar quarrel broke out between the two and in a fit of rage, he hit her head with a rod.”
Their older son, aged 10 years, had left for school at 6.30 a.m. while their four-year-old daughter was sleeping in the bedroom when the incident took place.
The couple were in a rented apartment for the past four years. According to police, Gowda ran a ladies bar at Ulhasnagar and was a partner in two lodges in Mahape and Juhugao.
“Their younger child often went to a senior woman’s house nearby. On Tuesday, after the murder, the accused dropped his daughter off at the woman’s house. The woman told us that as she always came there to play, she did not suspect anything fishy. When we found the body, she helped us in identifying it,” Mr. Awate said.
