Delhi: Man kills wife, caught on way to cremation site

NEW DELHI: A man who was on his way to cremate his wife’s body after claiming that she had died of a heart attack was arrested after it was discovered that he had smothered her in sleep. It was found that the man, Vijender Kumar, didn’t have good relations with his wife, Sunita (34), as she had failed to conceive in 14 years. He had married another woman and was staying with her in the same house.
DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said that a case of murder and destruction of evidence has been registered against Kumar.
On Saturday afternoon Kumar’s neighbours in Khadda Colony noticed him carrying Sunita’s body to a local crematorium. When they confronted him, he claimed that Sunita had died of a heart attack at night and needed to be cremated quickly as the body was decomposing. A neighbour found his narrative suspicious and informed the police.
A team from Kalindi Kunj police station took the body and sent it for an autopsy at AIIMS since it didn’t have a visible injury mark. Kumar stuck to his claim till doctors concluded that she had been smothered to death. Sunita’s body was handed over to her father, Yogendra Prasad, a resident of Bihar.
Prasad said Kumar and Sunita got married in 2003. As she couldn’t bear a child, Kumar would often torture her. He even took her to various godmen, who could not treat her. A few years ago, he married another woman and brought her to their rented house in Khadda Colony. This led to fights between the couple. The discord reached such an extent that Kumar took her to their village in Bihar and appeared before a panchayat where he threatened to kill Sunita in Delhi if she didn’t agree to a divorce.
“We didn’t protest then fearing the stigma of society. We thought it was a mere marital discord and left it to them to resolve,” said Prasad. A few months ago, Sunita called her parents pleading that they take her back home as Kumar and his second wife had been torturing her. Prasad said the family had then resolved the matter over the phone.
During interrogation, Kumar said that on Friday night he had an argument with Sunita during which he throttled her with his hands. Kumar worked with a private company in Sarita Vihar.