Strangled, throat slit: Haryana CA kills pregnant wife, passes it off as robbery case

Anshul Dhawan allegedly killed wife Mehak on February 15 when the couple was returning after celebrating Valentine's Day in Hisar.

It was a normal evening for 27-year-old Mehak who was returning from Hisar with her husband, Anshul Dhawan, after celebrating Valentine's Day on the night of February 15. But what unfolded on the road was no less than horror as Dhawan murdered his pregnant wife, something that he had been allegedly planning for a month.

The accused in police custody in Jhajjar on Tuesday. (HT) (HT_PRINT)

Dhawan is a chartered accountant, his deceased wife worked in a private bank and the couple lived in Gurugram. The two had tied knot in an arranged marriage setup in September 2025.

Wearing a pair of gloves, Dhawan murdered Mehak and threw her jewelry into a canal, to pass it off as a robbery attempt. Mehak's body was found near Pahsaur village at Badli in Jhajjar district. However, inconsistencies in his statement made the police suspicious and he was finally arrested on February 17.

‘Doubt' over wife’s character and a murder

Police earlier told HT that Dhawan allegedly had ‘doubts’ over his wife's character and suspected her of having extramarital affairs, which often led to quarrels between them since the beginning of their marriage.

Mehak's family also said that Dhawan had been suspicious of Mehak since their marriage and frequently fought with her. Her younger brother, Akshay Kathuria, claimed the accused had threatened to kill her and urged police to thoroughly examine mobile phone records of the accused and his family members.

Month-long planning to kill pregnant wife

In what looks like a confession of the murder, Mehak's brother-in-law, Saajan, alleged that Dhawan told him at the crime scene that he had been planning the murder for the past month. Saajan further raised suspicions about the involvement of the Dhawan's sister and brother-in-law as the duo had reached the spot before the police. A senior police official of Badli police station also told HT that Dhawan murdered his wife under a pre-planned plot as he used to doubt the Mehak's character.

However, the police said that Dhawan murdered Mehak after a verbal spat broke out between them. "After the murder the accused told his father that someone killed his wife. The victim’s post -mortem was conducted and her husband was arrested for her murder. An FIR under relevant sections was registered and an investigation is underway ,” a policeman from Badli police station told HT.

Murder passed off as robbery attempt

Dhawan tried to pass of the murder as a robbery attempt, according to police. An official told HT that Dhawan wore gloves as he attacked Mehak with scissors and threw away her gold ornaments into a canal. To further back his fabricated story of a robbery attempt, Dhawan allegedly damaged the windscreen of the car. Police have recovered the gloves from the crime scene.

He first strangled Mahak inside the car and after being sure that she was dead, Dhawan slit her throat with scissors, NDTV reported. After slitting her throat, he placed the dead body on the dirt track and set the whole scene to present it as a robbery attempt, after which he called the police.

“Her husband killed her with a sharp-edged weapon near Pahsaur village in Jhajjar’s Badli police jurisdiction on the night of February 15. Her husband informed the police after the murder and he tried to portray the case as a loot bid. When Badli police took him to the crime spot, he failed to tell how the incident occurred and how many assailants had killed his wife. When cops grilled him strictly, he confessed to the crime of killing his wife,” said a spokesman of Jhajjar police.

Mehak's father Krishan Kathuria runs a vegetable shop in Hansi. He said Mehak's dead body was found in the fields with injury marks around neck. "When I asked Anshul how the incident occurred, he tried to mislead us and then we suspected him for the murder,” Kathuria said, alleging that Dhawan had strangled her and then killed her with a sharp -edged weapon.

Inconsistencies in the statement

What made police suspicious of Dhawan's involvement in the case was the inconsistency in his statement. He failed to provide a clear description of the robbers, like their clothes or the vehicle used. During the questioning, he changed the sequence of the events and finally confessed to the murder after sustained questioning.