Woman, paramour arrested for killing husband

In the second such case to be solved this week, a woman and her paramour were arrested for allegedly killing her husband.

According to the Kalwa police, they found a man’s body early on Monday morning in a sewage drain near the Shanti Mafatlal slums in Kalwa. The body was sent for post mortem and after doctors identified strangulation as the cause of death, the police registered a case of murder against unknown persons and initiated investigations.

"We made inquiries in the area to detect any suspicious movement in the days before the body was found and learned that a man and a woman had recently visited the slum to examine a house that they wished to rent. We traced the middleman who had referred the house to them and through him, we learned the identity of the woman," Senior Police Inspector Shekhar Bagde said.

A team was subsequently sent to the Mahatma Phule Nagar address provided by the middleman to question the woman, identified as Rubina Salmani (34). The police, however, learned that she had recently changed her residence and was staying in Mumbra. Upon inquiries with her neighbours, the police got her address and picked her up on Tuesday.

While the police were only pursuing a hunch, Ms. Salmani, on seeing the police at her doorstep, reportedly broke down and confessed to having killed her husband, Tajbabu Salmani. The police then showed her pictures and she identified the body recovered from Kalwa as that of her husband.

Giving details of the case, Mr. Bagde said, "Rubina was having an affair with Tajbabu’s colleague, Pralhadsingh Rajput (28) for the last one year. Both worked in a tile manufacturing unit in Kalwa. Around a month ago, she left her husband and started living with Rajput, which led to frequent fights between the three."

On December 8, Ms. Salmani and Mr. Rajput asked Tajbabu to meet them near the Shanti Mafatlal slum. In an earlier visit they had identified the deserted sewage drain as the ideal spot for the murder. When Tajbabu showed up, both allegedly overpowered him and strangled him with a wire, after which they dumped his body in the drain.

Following Ms. Salmani’s confession, the police sent a team to Rajasthan and brought Mr. Rajput to Kalwa. Both accused were placed under arrest on Wednesday night.

The accused have been charged with murder and attempted destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code and remanded in police custody till December 18, the police said.