Bandra man sets wife on fire in front of 3-yr-old son, arrested

The couple got into an argument and in a fit of rage, the accused picked up a can of kerosene and poured it on his wife.

A 32-year-old man from Bandra was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly killing his wife by setting her on fire in front of their three-year-old son.

A 32-year-old man from Bandra was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly killing his wife by setting her on fire in front of their three-year-old son. (Representative Image)

The accused, Mohammed Akhlaq Nasim Qureshi, allegedly suspected his wife, 23-year-old Maryam, of having an affair.

According to the Bandra police, the incident took place on Tuesday morning.

The couple got into an argument and in a fit of rage, the accused picked up a can of kerosene and poured it on his wife.

When the neighbours saw a fire blazing inside the accused’s house, they contacted the police control room.

A team of officers from Bandra police station rushed to the spot and took Maryam to Bhabha Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival.

Following his arrest, Qureshi told the police that he and Maryam had been married for five years, but they started fighting a lot over the past three months.

He said that he had gone to Muzaffarpur in Uttar Pradesh for work earlier this year and his wife and son were alone in Mumbai.

When he returned, he suspected that his wife was having an affair with a man from the neighbourhood.

“Since then, they used to fight regularly. Qureshi became so suspicious that he used to doubt his wife even when she went to the market,” said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

“We arrested him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and he was produced in court,” said the officer.