Man attacks wife with sickle

Incident near Nangloi flyover; woman lived separately with her daughter

A 40-year-old man has been arrested after he allegedly made a bid on his estranged wife’s life by attacking her with a sickle on Saturday night in outer Delhi’s Nangloi. The accused was arrested early on Sunday. The weapon used in the crime has been seized.

Factory worker

The victim, Ritu, had separated from him and had been living with her daughter in Nihal Vihar for the last two years. She is a worker at an export factory of sewing clothes in outer Delhi’s Sultanpuri.

In her statement, Ritu purportedly told the police that she was attacked by Dharmender near the Nangloi flyover. A passerby, identified as Ravi Sharma, made the call to the police and the woman was rushed to a nearby hospital in Nangloi. The man had managed to escape by then.

Ritu told the police that she had married Dharmender 11 years ago. She said that they had separated following marital discord. An alcoholic, he allegedly did not like Ritu trying to stop him from drinking and would beat her up every day after getting drunk.

‘Moved out’

“Not being able to tolerate his activities any longer, I decided to move out with my daughter,” said Ritu.

She said that she was returning from work at Sultanpuri and was near the flyover when, at the junction, her husband came from behind and injured her grievously with a sickle before fleeing the spot.

Dharmender worked as a truck cleaner. In their effort to trace him, the police unsuccessfully scanned trucks in Punjabi Bagh and Okhla Mandi.

Residences raided

“In our efforts to find the absconding accused, his residences in Uttar Pradesh’s Unaao and Delhi were searched. Then the police received information about Dharmender’s whereabouts in Bighapur Unaav village, from where he was apprehended at 3 a.m. on Sunday. The weapon used in the commission of the crime was recovered from Suraj Mal Stadium,” said DCP (Outer) M.N. Tiwari.