Greater Noida woman hires 2 hitmen to kill daughter-in-law; held

Senior officers aware of the matter said that 30-year-old Soni (who goes by a single name) was shot dead at her home in Chhapraula village in Greater Noida on Tuesday

Unhappy with her son’s marriage, a 42-year-old woman allegedly hired two contract killers to murder her daughter-in-law, who was shot dead by the hitmen on Tuesday, police said on Friday.

Two suspects in custody. (HT Photo)

The mother-in-law and the two hitmen have been arrested.

Senior officers aware of the matter said that 30-year-old Soni (who goes by a single name) was shot dead at her home in Chhapraula village in Greater Noida on Tuesday.

Police said Soni, who was from Bihar, lived with her husband Mausam (who also goes by a single name), her 10-year-old daughter, and her brother Piyush at their Greater Noida residence. This was Soni’s second marriage.

In his complaint to the police, Mausam said he suspected Soni’s first husband Vinod to be behind her killing. On his complaint, an FIR was registered against Vinod on the charge of murder, officers said.

However, during investigation, police found that Vinod was not involved in the crime.

“We got to know that Mausam’s mother, Geeta Devi, was not happy with Mausam marrying Soni. Further investigation revealed that it was she who hired two contract killers, identified as Sachin Yadav (28) and Umesh Singh (24), for a sum of ₹1 lakh, to murder her daughter-in-law,” said Suniti, DCP (Central Noida). The three suspects were arrested on Friday.

During investigation, police came across the images of the two assailants on a CCTV camera footage recovered from near Soni’s residence, following which they were tracked down.

“Yadav, a resident of Chipyana Khurd village and Singh, a resident of Old Haibatpur were apprehended around 8am during vehicle-checking on Bisrakh road. Upon interrogation, they revealed that they were paid by Geeta to shoot Soni,” said Suniti.

On the revelations made by the suspects, Geeta was arrested from her residence in home village, in Tigdi area of Ghaziabad. She told police that she was unhappy with Soni and Mausam’s relationship as they both belonged to the same village in Bihar and were distantly related, said the DCP.

“Also, after getting married to Soni, Mausam stopped sending money to his parents, which further antagonised Geeta. In order to evade suspicion, Geeta pretended to grieve for her daughter-in-law and even accompanied Mausam during the last rites and cremation,” she said.

Police said Geeta knew Sachin Yadav through her husband. She contacted him in August, and complained to him about her daughter-in-law.“Later, Yadav met Geeta at her residence in Ghaziabad and she offered to pay him to eliminate Soni. Geeta paid Yadav an advance of ₹50,000 before the crime and promised him ₹50,000 more after a successful hit,” said RC Pandey, ACP-2, Central Noida.

Pandey said the hitmen fired three shots at Soni and fled.“Soni was shot in the head, neck and waist, as per the post-mortem report,” said the ACP.

The police also recovered the weapon and the motorcycle used by the suspects.“During the recovery of the weapon, Yadav snatched a police officer’s gun from his holster and tried to shoot the police in an attempt to flee. Police fired in retaliation, injuring Yadav in the leg and another FIR has been registered against him on the charge of attempt to murder of the Indian Penal Code,” said the ACP.

While Geeta and Singh have been remanded to judicial custody, Yadav has been admitted to a hospital for treatment for a gunshot wound. He will be produced before the court once he is discharged from hospital, said police.