‘Didn’t know couple had marital issues’

The three-storeyed building at Matunga police line where police naik Sudhir Rane lived with his wife and two children was abuzz on Wednesday as residents gathered to discuss his suicide and the murder of the woman he was allegedly having an affair with.

The three-storeyed building at Matunga police line where police naik Sudhir Rane lived with his wife and two children was abuzz on Wednesday as residents gathered to discuss his suicide and the murder of the woman he was allegedly having an affair with.

HT Image

On the first floor, Rane’s wife Suruchi sat in her house sobbing inconsolably.

A neighbour said she discovered that the policeman who killed himself was Rane through a news channel. “We then went to their house. Her three sisters were trying to get her to calm down,” the neighbour said, requesting anonymity.

“We did not tell the children in the morning, but later we told their 12-year-old daughter. She is shattered,” another neighbour said. The seven-year-old boy, a Class 1 student, did not understand why his mother was crying and kept asking for his father.

Neighbours said they had no inkling the couple had marital problems. “We hear that Suruchi got to know about everything only today,” a neighbour said.

A resident said Rane had the option of taking up a posting at Kankavli, Sindhudurg, where the couple hails from, but they decided to stay on. “Obviously, the family didn’t know that trouble was brewing,” she said.

A relative said the couple had an arranged marriage 10 years ago.