Lucknow Woman Held for Husband's Murder Over Contact With First Wife
A Lucknow woman allegedly had her husband murdered over his renewed contact with his first wife, with police arresting all accused after tracing an e-rickshaw and CCTV footage.
A woman in Lucknow has been arrested along with three others for allegedly orchestrating the murder of her husband, a crime police say was driven by his renewed contact with his first wife and her own extramarital affair.
The victim has been identified as Ramkishore Valmiki. His body was recovered from inside a trunk near the Bhavakheda Canal on September 17, the same day his first wife, Kavita Devi, lodged a murder complaint at the Mohanlalganj police station naming Sufia Bano and others.
According to the police, Sufia Bano and Valmiki had been in a relationship for about four years before marrying roughly two years ago. Not long after the wedding, Valmiki came to know of Sufia's affair with Munna, also known as Muchhad, aged 52. The discovery triggered repeated quarrels between the couple.
The friction deepened when Valmiki began visiting his first wife again and extended financial support to her, a development Sufia opposed. Police allege that his continuing contact with his former wife prompted her to plan his killing.
On the intervening night of September 14 and 15, Sufia is said to have invited Munna and his associate, Iqbal, to the house and deliberately left the door unlatched. The two men entered while Valmiki was asleep and stabbed him, according to the police account.
Investigators allege the accused then attempted to destroy evidence by plastering the floor and concealing the bloodstained broom, the victim's clothes and the knife used in the attack. Sufia subsequently summoned her 16-year-old son, and the four of them hid the body inside a wooden box kept under a bed.
The following night, the group loaded the body onto an e-rickshaw and dumped it beneath a canal bridge, police said.
All the accused were arrested after investigators tracked the route taken by the e-rickshaw and examined footage from around 180 CCTV cameras, according to the police.