Engineer kills wife for refusing to stay with him in Mulund home, is on the run

He suspected his wife was having an affair, the police said

A 35-year-old man is on the run after allegedly killing his 30-year-old wife at Mulund (West) because she refused to stay with him. The police, the accused, Jayesh Raghunath Mhadlekar and his wife, Shreya, had been living separately before the incident. He suspected his wife was having an affair, the police said. Shreya was allegedly hit on the head with a blunt object and was found by her mother, Madhuri, 52, in a ground-plus-one structure at PK Road in Mulund. Shreya’s parents had gifted the home to the couple.

The police, the accused, Jayesh Raghunath Mhadlekar and his wife, Shreya, had been living separately before the incident

Shreya Mhadlekar had been married to her husband for 12 years and the couple has a 10-year-old son.

Jayesh, an engineer, and Shreya, who worked in a private hospital, were married for 12 years and have a 10-year-old son. The relationship soured because Jayesh would drink alcohol frequently and harass her, the police said. In her statement to the police, Madhuri said she and her husband would frequently counsel Jayesh, but to no avail and the harassment continued. “There was an incident when Jayesh had pulled her hair out. Six months ago, he hit her on the head with a cooker,” Madhuri said, in her statement to the police.

Shreya left him and began living with her parents in Mulund, the police said. On Wednesday, Jayesh allegedly came to their residence and insisted she back to their home. However, Shreya refused to go with Jayesh, the police said. He returned the next day and tried to convince her once again, the police said. “Shreya left for work with him. After some time, when we checked if she had reached her workplace, she was not answering her phone. When I learned that she had not reached her workplace, I went to the place where she lived at PK Road. I found her in a pool of blood in a room upstairs,” Madhuri said in her statement.

Shreya’s mother contacted family members and also Jayesh, who has been absconding since. “The couple had lodged close to 25 non-cognisable offences against each other in the past. The police had warned him in the past as well. His phone is switched off since and we are investigating further,” said a police officer privy to the investigation. Jayesh has been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302 (murder).