Delhi: Days after man dies of electrocution, his wife and cousin arrested for murder

The Mata Rooprani Maggo Hospital in Uttam Nagar had informed the police on July 13 that one Karan Dev had reportedly died from electrocution. On July 16, the deceased’s brother, Kunal, approached the police allegedly with concerns about the role of Karan’s wife and his cousin in the death, said police. Acting on his statement, a preliminary inquiry was launched.

“While we were waiting for the postmortem report, the victim’s brother discovered some chats, which contained serious incriminating content. The brother informed the police and a written complaint was filed. On the basis of the complaint, we registered a case on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy,” Dwarka DCP Ankit Singh said.

The police said the purported chats allegedly contained messages shared between Sushmita and Rahul, planning the murder in detail.

“On the night of July 12, Sushmita allegedly laced her husband’s food with sleeping pills and called Rahul over. The two then cut an extension wire to reveal the naked wire and wrapped it around his hand, killing him. Once they were sure he was dead, Sushmita pretended to break the news to the family in a panic,” said an officer.

According to the police, Sushmita and Karan had been married for several years before she began a relationship with Rahul. “The two killed Karan and passed it off as an accidental death,” said an officer.

The police said the motive behind the murder could have been to get Karan out of their way or for financial gain.

Karan was declared brought dead at the hospital, as per the Medico-Legal Case (MLC) report. At that time, no allegations were raised by family members, who did not wish to go ahead with the postmortem. However, taking into account the age of the deceased and to rule out any unnatural circumstances, a postmortem examination was conducted, the DCP had said earlier.