Gujarat: Rajkot man arrested 120 km away near toll plaza hours after allegedly hammering wife to death
A 52-year-old man was arrested near Junagadh toll plaza for allegedly murdering his wife with a hammer following a domestic dispute at their Rajkot home.
Lalani was booked under BNS sections for murder, and criminal intimidation (AI generated image). A man allegedly attacked his wife on the head with a hammer at their residence in Rajkot on Friday, leading to her death, police said. The crime is likely a fallout of marital strife over the accused suspecting his wife of having a purported extramarital affair, police said.
Police identified the victim as Shilpa. The body was found at the residence and a hammer allegedly used in the crime was also recovered. The accused, Altaf alias Batuk Jafar Lalani, fled the city after the crime, Inspector C N Dave of Gandhigram-2 (University) police station in Rajkot city said.
However, hours later, on Friday evening, the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Rajkot city police managed to apprehend Lalani, 52, from near the Vanthali toll plaza in Junagadh district, which is over 126 km from Rajkot.
The FIR in the case, filed on the basis of a complaint by a niece of the deceased, alleged that Lalani returned home from his shop around 9:15 am on Friday and had an argument with his wife over her purported extramarital relationship. The niece managed to calm them down.
The FIR stated that a while later, Lalani stepped out of the house and returned with a cloth bag. He then asked the niece to go about her business but she told him that since Shilpa wanted to go to her own parents’ home in Porbandar, she would drop Shilpa at the bus stand and then go to work. Lalani then snatched the phones of both women and left the house.
He soon returned and called Shilpa. When Shilpa and her niece went to the living room, Lalani allegedly took out a hammer from the cloth bag he had earlier brought.
The niece managed to run out of the house to call the police. However, she heard Shilpa raising an alarm and rushed back to the flat. There, she saw her aunt lying in a puddle of blood.
Lalani soon fled the spot. Paramedics arrived and declared Shilpa dead.
Lalani was booked under BNS sections for murder, and criminal intimidation. Further investigation is underway, police said.
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