Man killed wife by stabbing her 40 times after claiming he was insulted

Police said the accused felt tortured due to the frequent abuse of his wife and so he decided to kill her.

 Gurugram: Tired of frequent insults and snide remarks from his wife, a 28-year-old man allegedly bludgeoned and stabbed his 23-year-old wife to death while she was asleep in Ashok Vihar, Sector 5 of Gurugram, on Saturday.

Police said the husband, Pankaj, and his co-worker, Naseem Ahmed (39), were arrested on Sunday evening for allegedly planning the murder of Vanshika, a homemaker, for the past two months.

Vanshika Sharma was found dead on Saturday with over 40 stab injuries, PTI quoted Gurgaon Police PRO Subhash Bokan as saying. “Bhardwaj was missing since the incident. He was our prime suspect. We arrested him with the help of technical surveillance on Sunday from Laxman Vihar area,” he said.

According to the police, she was allegedly hit on the head with a car wrench and stabbed multiple times in stomach, neck, chest and other parts of the body. Police said the stab wounds suggested that Vanshika had been stabbed through a quilt when she was asleep.

Sumit Kumar, station house officer, (SHO), Sector 5 police station, said the couple had tied the knot on April 28, 2017, and fought frequently.

“During questioning, the husband said that he loathed her because she used to embarrass him on the behest of her family. He did not like her behaviour and said that she did not talk to him either. So, he decided to kill her and planned the crime with a co-worker, Naseem. Naseem helped him procure the weapons and advised him to commit the murder at his house when other family members were away. The duo were waiting for an opportunity and planning for over two months,” SHO Kumar said.

Police said Vanshika was murdered between 2pm and 6pm on Saturday. Her father, Mahesh Sharma, a grocery shop owner from Delhi, filed a police complaint on Saturday, alleging that she had been murdered.

Sharma said a few hours before she died, she had called him on his phone informing that her husband was fighting with her and threatening to kill her.

“Around 1.30pm, I comforted her over the phone and told her that I would visit on Sunday to settle the matter. My daughter used to complain that her in-laws harassed her over dowry-related matters and chided her over trivial issues. I had intervened earlier also when she had returned to our house after a fight. On Saturday, I got a call around 7.30pm informing me that she had died,” Sharma said.

Police said the accused men would be produced in the district court on Monday and taken on remand to recover the knife and wrench used in the crime and to ascertain if other accomplices were involved. The husband and his family run a printing press in the city and had employed Naseem.

A case was registered against the accused persons under sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code at Sector 5 police station, police said.