Jhansi:

An illustration by a four-year-old girl, whose mother was found dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi on Monday, has raised suspicion that the woman was assaulted and murdered by her husband, after years of alleged harassment, the police said. 

The incident, which took place at Panchavati Shiv Parivar Colony under Kotwali area of ​​Jhansi, came to light when the 27-year-old woman’s in-laws told her family that she died by suicide. A drawing and a statement of the woman’s daughter, however, suggested that she was killed by her husband, and her body was hanged to make it appear as a suicide.

The woman was identified as Sonali Budholia and her husband, a medical representative, as Sandeep Budholia. Their daughter’s name is Darshita.

“Papa assaulted and killed mummy. He then said ‘die if you want to’. He hanged her body and hit her head with a stone. Later, he brought down the body and dumped it inside a sack,” Darshita, who later lit the pyre, told reporters, as she showed a drawing of the purported assault. 

The child also alleged that her father had threatened to kill her mother earlier. “I had told him once that if you touch my mother, I will break your hand. He used to beat her, saying she should die and that I should meet the same fate as her,” she said. 

Sonali’s father Sanjeev Tripathi, a resident of Tikamgarh district in Madhya Pradesh, said she and Sandeep got married in 2019 but have since shared a troubled relationship.

“On the wedding day, I gave them Rs 20 lakh in cash as dowry but days later, Sandeep and his family began making new demands. They wanted a car. I told them it is beyond my means to buy them a car. He and his family then started assaulting my daughter. I even approached the police over this once and we had arrived at a compromise,” he said.

The situation, however, worsened after Sonali gave birth to a girl, Sanjeev said. “Sandeep wanted a boy. After the delivery, he and his family left my daughter alone in the hospital. I had to go to the nursing home to complete the payment. I took her home. Sandeep came a month later to receive Sonali and Darshita,” he said. 

Sanjeev said recently, Sonali was attending her cousin’s wedding in Jhansi’s Samthar when Sandeep called and asked her to return home. 

“This morning, I got a call, saying my daughter’s health has deteriorated. After some time, I received another call, saying she hung herself. As soon as I reached there, I learnt that she was dead,” he said. 

Kotwali City Police officer Ramveer Singh said the body has been sent for an autopsy and the report is awaited.

“We got a call about the woman’s death at her husband’s house under mysterious circumstances. Her parents have alleged that she was murdered. We are probing the case,” Mr Singh said.

(With inputs from Vinod Kumar Gautam)

Sonbhadra:

Six people lost their lives and three others sustained injuries after a collision between an SUV and a truck in Ranitali village, under Hathinala police station limits here on Sunday, officials said.

The accident occurred around 7:30 pm on the Varanasi-Shaktinagar State Highway when a truck crossed the divider, veered into the opposite lane and collided head-on with a Hyundai Creta car going from Chhattisgarh towards Robertsganj.

According to Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar Meena, the deceased include four occupants of the car, the truck driver and the driver of another vehicle crossing the road.

Among the identified victims are Sanaullah Khalifa (40), a resident of Ramanujganj, Chhattisgarh, and Ravi Mishra (45) of Medical College Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh. Another victim, Umashankar Patel, son of the late Banarasi Patel, was a truck driver from Adalhat, Mirzapur. The identities of the three other deceased remain unknown.

The injured include two women and a man, who were rushed to the district hospital by police teams from Hathinala and Duddhi police stations. Given the severity of their injuries, they are being referred to a higher medical center.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the deceased have been sent to the Duddhi mortuary.

Senior police officials inspected the accident site and an investigation is underway to determine the exact cause of the truck’s deviation into the opposite lane.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Upset with her daughter’s love affair, Alka Devi, 42, hired a hitman to kill her daughter but ended up being murdered by him. In a shocking turn of events, Subhash, the hitman, turned out to be the daughter’s lover. In exchange for a marriage proposal, he murdered the woman. The incident came to light on October 6, when Alka’s body was found in a millet field under Jasrathpur police station of Etah district, Uttar Pradesh.

This tale of contract killing is not as modest as it appears to be. The number of characters will grow as each chapter unfolds. Sit tight.

Last week, on October 5, Alka Devi had gone to Etah to plead a case. When she didn’t return till late evening, Ramakant, her husband tried calling on her mobile but it was switched off. He looked around for his partner but all in vain until Sunday evening, when he got a call from the police, asking to identify a dead body.

Following identification, Alka’s body was sent for a postmortem and the widower Ramakant registered a case against two men – Akhilesh and Aniket – from his village, in Jasrathpur police station.

Reportedly, the duo is also accused of luring and kidnapping Alka’s daughter. Akhilesh was put behind bars by Naya Gaon police while the minor girl was safely rescued and sent to her family.

Alka Devi, probably scarred by the incident, sent her daughter to her maternal home in Sikandarpur Khas village of Farrukhabad district.

There the minor girl developed a relationship with 38-year-old Subhash, who, in the past, has served 10 years in jail. Subhash got her a mobile phone to talk.

Alka was tired and upset with her daughter’s love affair. That’s when she decided to get her killed. She offered Subhash Rs. 50,000 to execute the murder. Little did she know Subhash was the man her daughter was having an affair with.

Subhash disclosed the plan to the girl. Quick-witted, the girl offered to marry him if he killed the mother instead. Together, they strategised and staged pictures of the murder, fooling Alka. But when Alka didn’t pay the promised sum of Rs. 50,000, Subhash called her to Agra and visited her along with her daughter.

The trio travelled to Etah from Agra and went to Ramleela fair. From there, they got down before Aliganj and took Alka to Nagla Chandan where she was killed. The woman was strangled, according to the police. The daughter and her lover have been arrested.