52-year-old man arrested for killing wife over a dispute about sale of sesame seeds

A 52-year-old man was arrested on Sunday for allegedly beating his wife to death with sticks and an iron chain at their house in Farrukhnagar’s Jhudola village on Saturday night.

Lalman, 52, a farmer who works as a driver, was arrested from the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) toll plaza in Sultanpur when he was allegedly trying to flee to Rajasthan, the police said.

According to the police complaint filed by the dead woman’s brother, the murder is suspected to have taken place within hours of the her return to her home. Fifty-two-year-old Santosh had moved out of her home six months ago when she had allegedly sold a sack of sesame seeds without her husband’s consent, drawing his ire. The police said that one of Santosh’s two minor sons, both of whom were reportedly asleep at the time of the incident, found her dead on a cot on Sunday morning and called his married sister, who in turn called the police control room around 7.58am.

The police said they reached the spot within minutes. Later, Santosh’s maternal family, including her brother who is also the complainant in the case, reached the house.

The complainant suspected Lalman of foul play as the latter had called him earlier in the morning saying that Santosh had died of an illness within hours of returning home.

“On Saturday afternoon, some of their relatives had met and counselled Santosh to return to her house. Her first cousin had dropped her off at Jhudola after the parley. The same night, the couple fought again and Lalman is suspected to have beaten his wife to death,” police spokesperson Subhash Boken said.

The police said the woman succumbed to the multiple injuries on her head and body.

“Preliminary probe reveals that the couple fought around midnight Saturday, when their children had slept. In the morning, the man called his brother-in-law and said that she had eaten something and had died due to a reaction to the substance. Lalman had fled before Santosh’s family could reach the house. He had planned to escape to Rajasthan via Palwal and lie low at an acquaintance’s house. But, he was arrested,” said a police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity.

According to the police, Santosh was Lalman’s second wife and the couple had four children—two girls, both married, and two boys. The couple had been married for three decades. Lalman’s two children from his first marriage did not stay with him.

A case was registered under Section 302 (murder) at Farrukhnagar police station on Sunday. The suspect was produced in the district court on Monday and remanded to a day in police custody.