E-Paper
Troubled marriage, bitter divorce battle preceded Lucknow double murder-suicide
Divya Mishra alleged cruelty and threat to life; Manas Bajpai accused her of desertion and claimed that she did not want to live with his sister
LUCKNOW A day after a fatal triple shooting claimed the lives of ICICI Bank relationship manager Divya Mishra and her sister-in-law Sheeba Bajpai, allegedly at the hands of Mishra’s husband Manas Bajpai —who then died by suicide — contrasting accounts have emerged over the couple’s troubled marriage and the events leading up to the tragedy.
Documents of the family dispute accessed by HT from the family court have emerged as a saga of a troubled marriage, with allegations and counter-allegations made by Divya Mishra and her husband Manas Bajpai months before their deaths.
HT spoke to both families at the post-mortem house and cremation ground at Baikunth Dham where they offered conflicting accounts after the triple shooting rocked the city on Thursday.
Couple met on matrimonial app; married in 2017, filed divorce on Jan, 2026
Divya’s cousin Mayank Dixit said she had an arranged marriage with Manas. The court document stated the couple met through a matrimonial website and tied the knot on February 13, 2017. Court records also showed that Divya filed for divorce on January 3, 2026, alleging physical and mental cruelty, dowry-related harassment, repeated abuse and threats to her life. Manas, in turn, approached the court on March 13 under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, seeking restitution of conjugal rights and alleging that Divya had deserted him without sufficient reason.
The couple had been living separately since November 24, 2025, but their petitions offered contrasting accounts of why the marriage broke down.
According to legal documents, Divya claimed that years of alleged harassment and violence had made it impossible for her to continue living with Manas. She said in her arguments in court that she feared for her life and had been living separately since November 24, 2025.
Manas, however, alleged that Divya left the matrimonial home after a quarrel with him and his family, taking her ‘stridhan’, jewellery and other valuables.
But according to her arguments submitted in court, she claimed that she had been thrown out of the matrimonial home in 2021, but returned after relatives intervened and Manas assured her that the alleged abuse would stop.
Manas denied causing her hardship, alleging that Divya’s behaviour changed in 2021 and that she stopped taking interest in household work and repeatedly went to her parental home without informing the family. He also alleged that she spent hours talking to unfamiliar men on the phone and threatened to implicate him in false cases when he objected.
Family members alleged that about two years into the marriage, Divya and her family came to know of Manas’s “psychotic behaviour”. They claimed his behaviour eventually led Divya to seek separation. On the other hand, Manas’s family rejected the allegations. His maternal uncle Awadhesh Shukla described the claims as baseless and said Manas was a “very sensible” person. “He was not psychotic. If he was, how could he work in a government bank as he cleared an examination to fetch such a reputed job,” he said.
Shukla said Manas had been taking care of his sister Sheeba since the death of their parents. According to him, Manas would give Sheeba her medicines before leaving for work and again after returning home. “He loved both his wife and sister,” he added.
According to Shukla, both Manas and Divya were earning well and the principal dispute between them was over their living arrangement. He claimed Divya did not want to live with Sheeba, while Manas wanted his wife and sister to continue living together with him in the same house.
The dispute assumed a tragic turn on August 20 when Manas allegedly shot Divya and then Sheeba before shooting himself.
Shukla also said that Manas’s father and grandfather had also worked with reputed organisations during their careers.
Amol Kumar Shukla, resident of Ganeshganj and one of the maternal uncles, said: “Manas was scared of driving on busy Shaheed Path because of an accident...we don’t know how he managed to procure weapons and killed himself and two others.”
According to Manas’s cousin Shivam Shukla, 30, Manas’ father Ravindra Kr Bajpai (Gopal) was a PNB branch Manager and died in 2016 due to heart attack. His mother died of blood cancer in 2019. “Sheeba was not at all mentally retarded, she was depressed,” he claimed.
Manas’s petition also referred to Divya’s divorce case and two other proceedings filed by her under Sections 25 and 27 of the Hindu Marriage Act on January 5. He alleged that the cases were intended to harass him.
He said he made attempts to bring Divya back, but alleged that she and her family refused. The family court proceedings continued amid these claims. The last hearing was held on August 18, 2026, while the next hearing was scheduled for October 6, 2026, according to records accessed by HT.
The allegations in both petitions are claims made by the respective parties and have not been treated established findings of the court. The documents, however, establish that the marital dispute had escalated into multiple legal proceedings months before the fatal events.
