Professor kills wife and daughter, attempts suicide

A professor stabbed his wife and nine-year-old daughter to death and later tried to commit suicide in Thane on Monday night, police said. The murders are suspected to be the fallout of a quarrel between the couple, both college professors. The husband is now battling for life at a private hospital.

“On Monday night, Sanjay Umbarkar (42) entered into an argument with his wife Swati (32) at their residence in Vardhaman Gardens Apartments in Thane. In the heat of the moment, the husband stabbed the wife,” an official from the Kapurbawdi police station told The Hindu .

Sanjay pushed out his 15-year-old son Rigved from the bedroom while he pulled his daughter Atharva in. “Maybe he feared the son would resist the attack,” a police officer said.

Rigved ran to his relative’s house and later registered a complaint at the police station, narrating the incident.

“When we entered the house, it seemed there was blood everywhere,” a policeman who rushed to the crime scene said.

“Close relatives said he was jealous as the wife was doing better than him. The crime may be because of his jealousy,” a senior police officer told

The Hindu .

Sanjay is a professor of Arts and she was a professor of Science at BMA College. “She was brighter. Relatives said he had problems with this and it led to frequent fights in the house,” Thane Additional Commissioner of Police Vijay More said.

Rigved, who recently passed his Standard X exam, is in shock, police said.

Sanjay has been booked under Sections 302 and 309 of the Indian Penal Code.