Man held for murdering wife, staging it as suicide

A suspected case of suicide in South Delhi took a shocking turn after the post-mortem report revealed that the death of a 28-year-old woman was a murder. The accused, Amit Sehrawat, has been arrested.

The incident came to light on March 6 when a PCR call reported a woman found hanging at her residence in Mahipalpur. The woman, identified as Kalpana (28), was rushed to a hospital in Vasant Kunj where doctors declared her brought dead.

Kalpana had been married to Amit for six years and they have a five-year-old child.

Her parents informed the police that frequent quarrels occurred between the couple but did not accuse the husband of dowry-related abuse. The police treated it as a case of suicide.

Accordingly, proceedings under Section 196 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) were initiated.

However, the investigation took a dramatic turn when the post-mortem was conducted at Safdarjung Hospital on March 8. The autopsy report stated that Kalpana had died due to “asphyxia consequent upon antemortem ligature strangulation,” clearly suggesting foul play. Viscera samples were preserved for toxicology analysis to rule out any possible poisoning.

Following the revelation, a case under Section 80 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered and a detailed investigation was launched.

Amit confessed during interrogation that after attending a wedding on March 5 in Masoodpur, Vasant Kunj, and consuming alcohol, he returned home with his cousin’s help. The couple entered into a heated argument during which he strangled her in a fit of rage. He then used a multicoloured rope to hang her body, staging the scene to make it appear as a suicide. He was arrested on Friday and further investigation is on to determine the complete sequence of events, the police said.

Delhi