JABALPUR: Unable to put up with marital rape, a 34-year-old homemaker of Jabalpur decided to end her life and bought strips of sleeping pills on April 29. A day later, she was thirsty for revenge and administered them on her husband, Lal Singh, after he raped her in the presence of her five-year-old son.

Arrested on Friday for murder, the woman was remarkably calm and unrepentant. She told woman sub-inspector, Aruna Wahne, that all she wanted “death sentence and an assurance from the government that her son would be looked after well”.

A widow with a son from her first marriage with an armyman, the woman was married off to Lal Singh, an FCI employee, in February this year. It was an arranged match negotiated by her elder brother. On the first day, she realized Singh was not looking for a companion, but a sex slave. The woman, according to her statement to the police, was not allowed to go to her brother’s home and was tired of being treated like a plaything. Realizing that life would be hell with Lal Singh, she finally decided to end her life, bought and stored sleeping pills.

On April 30, Lal Singh returned from office and began to molest her, police said. Her protests fell on deaf ears and when she pleaded that her son who was playing in the next room could walk in any time, he marched out in a huff and brought the child inside the bedroom. He raped her in the presence of the weeping boy.

The shock on the face of the little one evidently proved to be the last straw. Town Inspector, Gorakhpur, Vijay Punj, said “the woman had contested a legal battle with her in-laws for custody of her son after her first husband died of a failed kidney. This treatment to the boy shook her.”

When Singh demanded tea, the woman boiled fistful of pills into the potion and served him. And the man fell asleep. Around midnight, she pinned him down and strangulated him. Next morning, she summoned her brothers and neighbours and told them that Lal Singh had died of an electric shock while trying to switch on the cooler, police said.

Town inspector Vijay Punj got suspicious by her body language. She narrated the events in a calm, impassive manner. “There was no grief on her face and not once did she break down,” said the police officer.

On sustained interrogation, she told sub-inspector Wahane that “she was happy to have killed the devil”. However, she does not want a protracted trial, but demanded a death sentence to put an end to her misery. Her only concern is her son who she hopes will be taken care of by authorities.