india

Updated: Jul 01, 2019 09:27 IST

A 29-year-old railway protection force (RPF) employee was arrested by the Sonepat police on late Saturday night for allegedly killing his wife Gayatri and strangulating his girlfriend’s husband, Jai Singh, at Nahara village in Sonepat.

The accused has been identified as Naveen, an RPF constable hailing from Nahara village. His girlfriend Rekha, who was also allegedly involved in the crime, is still on the run, police said.

Naveen’s father-in-law, Mahavir Singh, who is the complainant in the case, said that his daughters Gayatri and Meena had got married to brothers Naveen and Vikas of Nahara village six years ago.

“On May 28, I got a call from Vikas, saying that Gayatri had suffered a heart attack and was undergoing treatment at a hospital. Later, we were told that doctors had failed to save her life,” said the complainant, adding, “We suspected foul play but under the pressure of family members and relatives, we cremated her body.”

“A few days after my daughter’s death, we got to know that my son-in-law Naveen had an illicit relationship with a woman named Rekha, who belongs to his village. We also found out that the two had got married in a temple a few days before my daughter’s death,” Singh told the police.

The complainant further told the police that nearly 15 days after his daughter’s death, Naveen and Rekha strangulated Rekha’s husband, Jai Singh, to death. Following the murder, Rekha told everyone that her husband had committed suicide.

It was only when Naveen’s in-laws visited him for the post-death rituals that his father-in-law discovered some phone recordings on his phone.

A cop privy to the investigations, on the condition of anonymity, said that in the recordings, Rekha can be heard telling Naveen to take help of ‘Papa’ to kill his wife. “If you alone can’t complete your task, Papa will arrange a person, who will help you for the same,” she is reportedly heard saying.

The cop said, “We are investigating who Papa is. Rekha’s in-laws are saying that her father had died many years ago.”

A resident of the Nahara village, on condition of anonymity, said that Naveen came in contact with Rekha when she was preparing for railway entrance exams.

“They plotted to kill their respective partners so that they can live together,” the person said.

Sonepat DSP Harender Kumar said they had arrested Naveen on late Saturday night while Rekha is still on the run. “On Saturday, a forensic team had visited the cremation ground of Nahara village and collected evidence pertaining to Gaytri’s case and sent the same for laboratory testing,” he added. The Kundli police have booked the duo under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201(causing disappearance of evidence), 302 (punishment for murder) and 497 (whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man) of Indian Penal Code.