Police arrest niece’s lover, his nephew for murdering carpenter

The police said the case was cracked after Sheetal, who was also the complainant, refused to share her mobile phone with the police.

Six days after a 32-year-old carpenter was allegedly shot dead in Jakhopur village in Sadar Sohna, the police arrested the lover of the victim’s niece and the lover’s nephew for conspiring to murder him. The police said the victim’s niece, Sheetal, and her lover, Kanhaiya, conspired to kill the victim, as he allegedly interfered in their personal lives.

The couple planned to get rid of him and wanted to pin the blame of the murder on victim’s six relatives. (AFP)

The couple planned to get rid of him and wanted to pin the blame of the murder on Sheetal’s six relatives. The police said that Sheetal and Kanhaiya, 34, had been in an extramarital affair.

“Sheetal’s husband, on the other hand, was in a relationship with the victim’s wife for over three years. Since Sheetal’s separation with her husband, she had been living with her uncle, who often complained of her affair with Kanhaiya. So, she planned to murder her uncle with the help of her paramour and his nephew and get other relatives arrested,” said Ramesh Kumar, station house officer (SHO), Sadar Sohna police station.

The police said the case was cracked after Sheetal, who was also the complainant, refused to share her mobile phone with the police. “Her call records revealed that she had made a call to the accused on the day at 12:35, shortly before the incident and had been in touch with him over the previous night,” said SHO Kumar. The police said that Sheetal was yet to be arrested as the police was completing formalities and attaching evidence.

On March 27, around 4 pm, the victim, Rakesh, was found dead when he was alone at his house. His niece, Sheetal and his mother, had gone to the local market when Kanhaiya, and his nephew, Dev alias Monu, 23, came on a motorcycle and entered the house. Kanhaiya overpowered the victim and held him from behind, while Dev fired a bullet in the victim’s head.

The police had booked six people in the case, after Sheetal had alleged the role of her mother, her maternal uncle, her estranged husband Manish, the victim’s wife, Manish’s lawyer and another relative.

Sheetal had alleged that her husband and the victim’s wife were in an extramarital affair and a case for divorce settlement had been pending in a Faridabad court. “Since I was refusing to settle the case, I was threatened by the accused (her husband and his lawyer) that my uncle and I would be killed,” she had told the police last Thursday.