Driver, sacked, confesses to killing DU professor’s wife; autopsy report awaited

A 32-year-old woman was allegedly strangulated and electrocuted to death by a 31-year-old man on Monday evening in a murder that took place at Delhi’s West Sant Nagar in Burari, police said

A 32-year-old woman was allegedly strangulated and electrocuted to death by a 31-year-old man on Monday evening in a murder that took place at Delhi’s West Sant Nagar in Burari, police said.

A woman was allegedly strangulated and electrocuted to death by a man on Monday evening in a murder that took place at Delhi’s West Sant Nagar in Burari, police said. (AFP/ Representational photo)

The murdered woman was the wife of a Delhi University (DU) assistant professor, police said.

The accused, a driver who earlier lived in the same house in West Sant Nagar before being evicted, was arrested from the locality after confessing to committing the murder by “strangulation and electrocution”, when cops patrolling the area found him in a suspicious state and confronted him.

The accused, identified by police as Rakesh, referred to the murdered woman during his confession as his “sister-in-law”, the police said.

The victim and the assistant professor at DU’s Ramjas College got married in February.

Police said the driver killed the woman because he had a grudge against her over several reasons. He said he was upset, according to the police, because the woman had evicted him and his family from the house; and also she allegedly asked him return a Wagon R taxi that he was using to earn his livelihood.

The accused also claimed he was enraged because the DU teacher hadn’t been clearing some payments due to him.

The plot, however, took a different turn when the murdered woman’s family members said they suspected her husband’s role in the killing.

The victim’s family members said they had filed a complaint at Burari police station back in August, seeking police protection for her as they feared her in-laws and driver Rakesh could be plotting to kill her.

“We are looking into the [family’s] allegations,” said a senior police officer.

Deputy commissioner of police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said, “Rakesh held the woman responsible for becoming unemployed also for evicting him from the house. He… planned to take revenge. He killed her when her husband and mother-in-law were out for some work. The [murdered] woman’s 84-year-old bed-ridden father-in-law was at home, but he didn’t hear anything as he’s hearing-impaired.”

The police were waiting for the autopsy report to confirm the exact cause of death.

They police were interrogating Rakesh to know more about the sequence of events surrounding the murder.