Mohali, June 19: A domestic spat between a couple turned ugly on Wednesday night, when a gardener killed his pregnant wife at their rented accommodation in Phase XI.
But the resistance by the victim, Shobha Rani, left her husband Krishan Kumar aka Bablu seriously injured, Deputy Superintendent of Police (City-II) Swarandeep Singh told Newsline.
The couple, residents of Babka Purba village in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, was married around a year ago and was staying in the garage of one Ranjit Singh, at whose house Shobha, in her mid-twenties, worked as a domestic help. Bablu, in his late-twenties, worked as a gardener with the Ranbaxy Laboratories in Phase I.
The DSP said the couple had been fighting for the last two days over Shobha’s insistence to visit her parents in Rae Bareli. Bablu wanted her to visit his parents’ house to look after his ageing father, who lived alone.
During an argument on Wednesday night, Bablu lost his cool and attacked Shoba with a pair of scissors he used for gardening.
Bablu slit the neck, ears and other vital organs of Shobha, whose resistance caused stab injuries to him, the DSP said.
After the murder, Bablu spent the night lying next to his dead wife. It was only in the morning, when Shobha did not report for work, that the incident came to light.
When nobody answered his knocks, Ranjit Singh called Bablu’s brother Shalinder from Balongi, and the police.
Around 9.30 am, the door was broken open and the couple was found lying in a pool of blood. Shobha was dead and Bablu was gasping for breath, the DSP said.
According to Shalinder, Shobha was two months pregnant.
Admitted in the Civil Hospital in Phase VI, an unremorseful Bablu said, “She always used to pick fights with me over petty issues. Last night also, when I asked her for some work, she started quarrelling and attacked me with the scissors, which I then snatched from her and attacked her.”
The police have recovered the murder weapon, said Sub-Inspector Deepinder Singh, the investigating officer in the case.
A case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC has been lodged against Bablu, who has been kept under police vigil at the hospital.
——Agencies