A restaurateur allegedly shot his wife dead while their two-year-old son was sleeping in her lap inside their car, and then tried to mislead authorities by claiming that she was killed by moneylenders harassing him, the police said today, 27 October.
The child was splattered in his mother's blood as Pankaj Mehra shot his 34-year-old wife Priya Mehra near the Rohini jail while they were returning from the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, a senior police official said.
Pankaj Mehra, 35, then tried to mislead the police by claiming that his wife was killed by moneylenders who had been threatening him since he owed them money.
He also broke the window pane of the car and inflicted a wound on his forehead to make his claim look genuine, police said.
Husband Confesses to Crime
Pankaj Mehra had claimed that two men in a car intercepted their car near Rohini jail. As per his claim, one of them broke his car window and got into a scuffle with him while brandishing a pistol, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Milind Dumbere.
During the scuffle, two rounds were fired and his wife was hit. But before the accused could attack him, Pankaj Mehra fled and took his wife to a private hospital, where she was declared brought dead.
However, when the police analysed the CCTV footage from the area, they found only Pankaj Mehra's car moving on the route and there was no vehicle visible trailing his along that route, said the DCP.
The evidence indicated that the woman had been shot at close range since the entry and exit wounds were at 180 degrees, the police said.
Pankaj Mehra was confronted with these evidences and he confessed in the wee hours of Friday morning to killing his wife, the police said.
Husband Had Strained Relations With Wife: Police
The accused had strained relations with his wife and the couple had gotten back together for the sake of their two-year-old child a couple of months ago, they said.
Pankaj Mehra was having an extra-marital affair and the couple had frequent fights over the issue and Priya had left him, police said.
The accused was also heavily in debt. He had two restaurants – one on Deshbandhu Gupta Road and one in Hudson Lane – but both had to be shut down since they ran into losses, the police said.
Priya’s Mother Feared For Her Life
Priya’s mother, Manju Meghani, asserted that she always feared that Pankaj would kill her and that she had asked Priya to divorce him.
“Priya loved Pankaj even after she got to know about his extra marital affair. I had advised her to seek a divorce, but she hoped that Pankaj would return to her someday,” Manju told Hindustan Times.
She further said that when Priya spoke to the other woman in her husband’s life, she told her that she had married Pankaj and that they even had a child together.
“Though Pankaj confessed to having been in a relationship with the woman and even spending four days with her outside Delhi, he denied that he had married her or fathered a child. But whenever Priya questioned him, Pankaj would beat her up,” Hindustan Times quoted Manju, Priya’s mother as saying.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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