Professor Murders Wife After The Cheque He Received From Her Family As Dowry Bounced

Virendra Kumar, a 38-year-old assistant professor at Delhi University, and his nephew Govind Prasad, 29, were arrested for the murder of Kumar's wife, Pinky Singh. The 33-year-old victim suffered a brutal death by strangulation and electrocution, reports The Hindu.

Kumar and Singh were married on Feb. 16, during which Singh's family handed over a cheque for ₹5 lakh as a gift. However, the cheque bounced due to insufficient funds in the bank, which infuriated the professor.

The heinous crime came to light after cops arrested Kumar's former employee, Rakesh, who was loitering around the home where the murder occurred, "in a state of nervousness.” He confessed to the crime, claiming that he had murdered Singh. Following his arrest, cops arrived at the couple's home and discovered Singh's dead body on the bed, according to Hindustan Times.

During interrogation, he revealed that he killed his former employer's wife because she'd allegedly asked Kumar to kick Rakesh out of the house. However, he kept changing the sequence of events constantly, which led the cops to believe that there's more to the story than meets the eye.

Upon further investigation, Rakesh admitted that he, along with Kumar and Prasad, came up with a plan to murder Singh about a fortnight ago.

“It was on Monday morning that Kumar and Rakesh made plans to kill Pinky, even though they first spoke about it over 15-20 days ago. He told Rakesh about his marital issues and that the ₹5 lakh cheque had bounced. Rakesh, on the other hand, was upset because he was sacked from the driver’s post by Pinky and made to vacate the room he occupied,” said Sagar Singh Kalsi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).

According to the plan that was hatched, Rakesh was to surrender as the sole culprit and mislead the police investigation.

“Kumar would then help Rakesh get bail and provide him with legal aid. Rakesh did as planned and confessed to the murder on Monday. But there were inconsistencies in his statements. So we scanned the footage from over 300 CCTV cameras to ascertain the time when Kumar left the house. The evidence we gathered showed that both men were lying. Kumar was subjected to detailed questioning and he confessed to the murder. He also said his nephew, Govind Kumar, helped him in the crime,” Kalsi said.

Meanwhile, Singh's brother, Manvir Singh revealed that his deceased sister had been constantly harassed over dowry ever since their marriage was arranged. The harrassment reportedly started just a week after the wedding, forcing the victim to return home, as per Hindustan Times.

“My father is a junior employee with the Indian Railways. He sold our house to pay the dowry but that was not enough for Pinky’s husband. Within a week, Kumar started harassing my sister. He also threatened Pinky and we filed a police complaint in this regard. He took Pinky back in August only after we threatened to pursue our complaint,” Singh said.