A 37-year-old bank employee allegedly shot dead his estranged 33-year-old wife, also a banker, outside her office in Lucknow on Thursday, and later killed his sister before shooting himself, police said.
According to police, at 12.05 pm, the wife, Divya Mishra, reached the Gomti Nagar branch of ICICI Bank , along with her colleague, in her car. Divya worked there as a relationship manager. Her husband, Manas Bajpayee, an assistant manager at a regional business office of the State Bank of India, was waiting nearby in an auto-rickshaw.
Bajpayee asked Divya to step out of the car, assaulted her when she did, shot her, police said, adding he fled the spot in his car.
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Deputy commissioner of police (east) Deeksha Sharma, who reached the spot after the incident, said the woman had worked there for three to four years. “The woman’s co-workers at the bank identified the attacker as her husband,” the DCP said.
{{/usCountry}}Deputy commissioner of police (east) Deeksha Sharma, who reached the spot after the incident, said the woman had worked there for three to four years. “The woman’s co-workers at the bank identified the attacker as her husband,” the DCP said.
{{/usCountry}}Around 12.30pm, Bajpayee reached his home in Husadiya, about 2 km from the bank. His tenant, Luvkush, who has been running a restaurant on the premises for nearly a decade, told reporters that he saw Bajpayee rush into the house, sweating profusely. “I asked him, ‘Bhaiya, what’s the matter? You appear stressed.’ But he told me it was nothing and that there were some office issues. Then he went inside,” Luvkush said.
Restaurant employees said Bajpayee locked the door after entering the house and played Hanuman Chalisa at a high volume.
‘Betrayal’ claim in WhatsApp status
Police said Bajpayee also uploaded a WhatsApp status in which he purportedly confessed to killing his wife, saying she had “betrayed” him. He also wrote that he intended to kill himself and his sister, and claimed that Divya’s sister, Pragya Mishra, a journalist and YouTuber, and her husband, Bharat Yadav, knew everything about his wife’s alleged “betrayal”.
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Police, however, cautioned that the alleged WhatsApp message was still being verified.
Around 1.26 pm, Pragya posted on social media that she had received information that her sister had been shot.
Police said Bajpayee was subsequently traced to the Husadiya area in Gomti Nagar, where he allegedly shot his sister before shooting himself.
Commissioner of police (CP) Tarun Gauba reached the crime scene and said investigation was underway and forensic teams were examining evidence from the sites linked to the shootings.
“CCTV footage is being checked to piece together the sequence of events. We have sent the bodies for post-mortem exam and recovered three unlicensed murder weapons,” DCP Sharma said.
The couple had married about 10 years ago, police said. “Family members told us that the couple had not been living together since November 2025. Divya would sometimes stay with her family and at other times with her in-laws. Their dispute had intensified since November,” Gauba said.
Divya had recently filed a divorce petition in the family court, seeking compensation and the return of dowry given during the marriage. The two, however, reportedly remained in contact.
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Divya had recently observed a Teej fast for Bajpayee, a detail that made the violence all the more “unexpected”, Pragya said.
“Bajpayee’s sister was mentally ill and he thought that after his death, there would be no one to take care of her, so he decided to kill her,” Luvkush told reporters.
HT reached out to ICICI and SBI for a comment but did not get a response till going to press.