Hotel murder: Wife ‘drugged, slashed’ Sapra with scissors

The post-mortem report of 51-year-old Mandiv Sapra, Delhi-based executive officer of Group 4 Securitas who was found murdered in a Chandigarh hotel yesterday, reportedly adds credence to the theory that his wife Swapna had plotted to commit the crime.

Sources say the report establishes the ‘‘surgical precision’’ with which the murder was carried out and points to the injuries on Mandiv’s neck as internal and sharp-edged. DSP (Central) S.C. Sagar confirmed that the injuries could ‘‘presumably be of blood-soaked scissors’’. The police was, till now, contending that the murder occured after the wife stabbed Mandiv with a broken soda bottle in his neck. This was reportedly after Swapna stopped him from drinking and the deceased hurled the bottle at her in anger.

Police sources, however, say the actual sequence of events point that the murder was committed by the wife when the deceased was unconscious. ‘‘She either mixed an intoxicant in his liquor or delivered him local anesthesia — the bottle of which was recovered. Then, wearing surgical gloves, she cut the windpipe of her husband with the scissors in a literal operation,’’ said a police official.

Sources add that Swapna then wiped off the blood with socks and a hankerchief — later recovered — before allegedly enacting the suicide ‘drama’ to ward off suspicion. She had slashed her wrists and had tried to drown in a bath tub before the hotel staff rushed to open the door hearing her shrieks. Swapna has been remanded to two days’ police custody.