In order to get rid of his wife, a 24-year-old Amity University student meticulously planned her murder, even rehearsing the crime with a contract killer two days before the killing.
The killer shot dead the victim, Monika Dahiya, while her five-month-old daughter was in her arms. The baby sustained minor injuries as her mother collapsed, but is now safe.
Monika’s husband, Lalit, misled the police for almost a week after the murder that took place in South-West Delhi’s Chhawla on April 20. He finally spilled the beans after which he and the contract killer were arrested.
A resident of Gurgaon and son of a businessman, Lalit is pursuing his Masters from Amity University.
He had married Monika, daughter of a retired Delhi Police sub-inspector in January last year. The couple has a five-month-old daughter from the wedlock.
Problems between the couple started right after marriage as an “over-possessive” Monika, claimed the accused, wanted him to live separately with her, away from his parents and sisters.
Surender Kumar, DCP (South-West), said that Lalit was under tremendous pressure and that resulted in frequent quarrels between the couple.
However, the police are also probing the role of a female friend of Lalit in the murder.
“We are investigating whether Lalit wanted to marry that friend for which he killed his wife. We cannot comment on the other woman’s role as of now,” said a senior investigator.
Lalit allegedly roped in a labourer Sahil whom he knew for the last two years. Sahil was promised Rs.8 lakh for killing Monika and was given Rs.50,000 as advance amount. Lalit only arranged for a scooty and a pistol for carrying out the murder.
On April 18, two days before the murder, Lalit and Sahil even rehearsed the killing at the very spot where they actually carried out the crime. As per plan, Sahil was supposed to shoot Lalit in his leg after killing Monika so that the police could be misled.
On April 20, Lalit, Monika and their child were headed from Gurgaon to her parents’ home in Chhawla when Lalit stopped their Toyota Fortuner car on a lonely stretch of road on the pretext of urinating.
Within moments of Lalit walking away from the car, Sahil arrived at the scene on a scooty, entered the vehicle and fatally shot Monika in her head. The police said that the pistol happened to get jammed when it came to shooting Lalit in his foot.
The police were informed and Monika was rushed to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.
The probe initially went in all directions for a few days before the police's needle of suspicion landed firmly on Lalit.
“If the motivation was robbery, the killer had gotten away without taking the car. If not, why would the killer spare Lalit and the child? Lalit had no satisfactory answers to these questions and even his decision to stop the car at an isolated place seemed suspicious,” said the DCP.
Lalit initially avoided the questions by either screaming or pretending to fall unconscious. After a few days, when the police interrogated Lalit at length, he broke down and confessed to the crime. At his instance, the contract killer Sahil, too, was nabbed.
He allegedly roped in a labourer, Sahil, who was promised Rs.8 lakh for killing Monika
