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Ludhiana: Factory owner kills 48-year-old wife to usurp her properties
Son, daughter and daughter-in-law also booked for aiding the accused in strangling his wife to death at their Atam Nagar house in Model Town
Son, daughter and daughter-in-law also booked for aiding the accused in strangling his wife to death at their Atam Nagar house
Eyeing her properties, a factory owner, along with his son, daughter and daughter-in-law, allegedly strangled his wife to death at their Atam Nagar house in Model Town on Friday morning.
According to police, the victim, Aarti Arora, 48, was the whole-time director of the family’s factory, Arora Alloys, located in Phase 7, Focal Point.
Through her career she had amassed considerable real estate holdings, which her husband, Harmesh Arora, who is the factory’s managing director, had been trying to usurp. Apart from this, he had also been accusing her of infidelity.
Harmesh, 50, has been arrested, while his son Lovish Arora, 26, daughter Ritika Arora, 20, and daughter-in-law Lovisha Arora are absconding. Another son of the victim is settled abroad.
Passes off murder as suicide
According to police, after killing Aarti, to avoid being caught, Harmesh took the body to a private hospital in Model Town, claiming she had hanged herself.
Meanwhile, neighbours alerted Aarti’s brother Rajan Kundra, who lives in Karnail Singh Nagar. When Kundra rushed to the hospital, he was aghast to find his sister dead and immediately alerted the police.
Ligature marks present on neck: Cops
“Kundra informed the police around 9.30am, following which a team reached the victim’s house and the hospital. There were ligature marks on her neck, which indicated that she was strangled using a wire, while strewn around articles inside the house showed she had put up a fight,” said inspector Inderjit Singh, station house officer (SHO), Model Town police station.
In his statement to the police, Kundra alleged that his brother-in-law had been harassing his sister to grab the properties she had raised through her personal efforts.
In his greed, he had also turned his son, daughter and daughter-in-law against Aarti.
The SHO said following the complaint by the victim’s brother, they had booked the four accused under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. “The body has been sent for autopsy, and things will get clearer once the other accused are nabbed,” he added.
Apart from managing his alloy business, Harmesh is also the president of the management committee of Chintapurni Mandir and trustee of Shri Govind Gaudham, which handles one of the largest cow shelters in Ludhiana.