Woman ‘kills’ husband, tries to make it look like suicide

Boyfriend, another man helped her commit the crime, say police

Police Commissioner R.K.Meena addressing the media in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

The police on Tuesday arrested a woman, on charge of murdering her husband, a havildar in Indian Army, in Maddilapalem area. According to police, the accused Dalli Jyothi (26), along with her boyfriend S. Bharat Kumar (24), an ex-offender and his friend G. Bhaskar Rao, allegedly killed D. Satish Kumar (32), and tried to make it look like a suicide.

The police also arrested Bharat Kumar and Bhaskar Rao.

Police Commissioner R.K Meena told the media that the police received a phone call from Jyothi on August 19 and she claimed that Satish Kumar ended his life by hanging himself from a ceiling fan, after a heated argument between them.

The woman said that Satish Kumar, who was posted in Jammu & Kashmir, came home on July 27.

“Jyothi, in her complaint, claimed that Satish was an alcoholic and suspected her fidelity, which led to frequent arguments between them. After an altercation on August 18 night, he ended his life,” Mr. Meena said.

Twist in the case

Acting on the complaint, the police initially registered a case under Section 174 of Cr.P.C.

However, the police received a phone call from the senior officials of Indian Army, seeking a copy of the post-mortem report so that they could release the compensation to Satish’s family. “The Army personnel also know that it would take around 15 days for the post-mortem report to be issued. But, we received the call just three days after the incident. We came to know that Jyothi contacted the Army officials seeking immediate release of the compensation. Suspecting something fishy, we investigated further,” said Mr. Meena.

He further said that Call Data Records (CDR) suggested that Jyothi had made several phone calls to a number on the day of the offence. “This gave us a clue. The accused confessed to have committed the crime during interrogation,” said Mr. Meena.

Jyothi, daughter of an ex-servicemen, married Satish in 2010 and has two children. She allegedly developed an illicit affair with Bharat and the duo decided to eliminate Satish and live together.

‘Strangled to death’

“On August 18 night, Jyothi allegedly laced alchohol with sedatives and served it to Satish who fell asleep after consuming it. Then, she called Bharat, who reached her house, along with his friend Bhaskar. The trio allegedly strangled Satish with a dupatta and then hanged the body from a ceiling fan with a saree in a bid to make it look like a suicide,” the Police Commissioner said, adding that the post-mortem report is awaited.

Police have registered fresh cases under Section 302, 201, 120 (B) of IPC.