Man ‘strangles’ woman in Delhi’s Bhalswa Dairy for rejecting marriage proposal

The woman’s landlord initially thought it was a suicide because she had a dupatta wrapped around her neck.

A 22-year-old woman was killed by a man, who had been pestering her to leave her husband and marry him, in northwest Delhi’s Bhalswa Dairy. Police said that the woman was strangled on Saturday afternoon when her husband, a vegetable vendor, had gone out for work. Ravi Kumar,28, a contractual labourer at a godown, was arrested when he was planning to flee to his native village in Aligarh, UP. The woman’s one-year-old son was in the house when she was killed, police said.

A protester in Ahmedabad participates in a rally condemning rising crimes against women. (AP File)

According to police, it was around 2.30 pm on Saturday when the woman’s landlord informed the police control room reporting that she has committed suicide. The call was received at Bhalswa Dairy police station.

When a police team reached the spot they found that the woman had been strangled to death. “Since there was a dupatta wrapped around the woman’s neck her landlord thought she had committed suicide. Locals and neighbours told police that her husband Rajesh Singh (27) is a vegetable vendor and was at a nearby market. He was called on the spot and during questioning he raised suspicion over Kumar. Singh told police that Kumar had been pestering his wife and she had told him about the advances he had made,” said a senior police officer, not authorised to speak to the media.

Deputy commissioner of police (northwest), Aslam Khan said, during interrogation, Kumar revealed that he was in love with the woman but she never reciprocated his love. “He said that despite his advances the woman turned down his every proposal and asked her not to meet her. She had also threatened to call the police, the next time he approached her and had told her husband about Kumar,” the DCP said.

Khan said that Kumar knew that woman’s husband usually left home in the afternoon and returned at night. “He had gone to her house to persuade her. A heated argument took place between them and Kumar, in a fit of rage strangled her to death using her dupatta,” the DCP said.