From tragic accident to ruthless betrayal: Unveiling murder plot by wife, her lover

A tragic road accident in the outskirts of Jammu city of Jammu and Kashmir ultimately turned out to be a ruthless betrayal case in which a wife plotted the murder of her husband with the help of her lover.

The Jammu Police solved this murder case by using technical evidence.

According to police a woman, along with her lover, allegedly conspired and killed her 33-year-old husband while portraying the murder as a road accident. Both the accused were arrested and taken into custody. The victim was brutally murdered in the Seora area falling under the Jurisdiction of Police Post Pounichak, Jammu on Sunday 6th April 2024 evening.

"On 7th April 2024 at about 03:00 hours, information was received at Police Post Pounichak through Police Control Room Jammu to the effect that one person namely Naresh Chander son of Achru resident of Bhaderwah had died due to a road accident near Revenue Complex, Gole Gujral and his dead body was lying at Gandhi Nagar Govt. Hospital, Jammu, and his wife was admitted there in injured condition", police said.

On receiving this information, an Investigating Officer was deputed to Gandhi Nagar Hospital who took the dead body into custody and recorded the statements of the wife of the deceased and other witnesses. After that postmortem of the deceased was conducted at Government Medical Collage (GMC) Jammu and the body was handed over to legal heirs.

On this, FIR No.85/2024 U/S 279,337,304A IPC was registered in Police Station Domana and investigation of the instant case was entrusted to ASI Vinod Kumar of Police Post Pouni Chak.

How do police turn an accident into a murder case?

During the investigation, it came to the fore that the statement of the wife of the deceased was suspiciously misleading and mismatched with the incident.

The Investigation Officer informed his senior officers that he was sensing foul play in the death and had doubts about the involvement of the wife of the deceased.

On this, the police of Police Post Pounichak under the supervision of SHO Police Station Domana, SDPO Domana, and SP Rural Jammu started a thorough investigation during the investigation, all technical evidence was collected, and statements of in-laws of the deceased and other relatives were recorded.

After a detailed investigation, it came to the notice that Shallu Devi wife of deceased Naresh Chander was having illicit relations with one person namely Bhanu Partap Singh, who was also present with them at the time of the death of Naresh Chander. Acting swiftly, police arrested both Shallu Devi and Bhanu Partap, and during questioning Bhanu Partap admitted that he along with Shallu Devi had hatched a criminal conspiracy and killed Naresh Chander at an abandoned plot in the Seora area and thereafter took him to Gandhi Nagar hospital.

As Bhanu Pratap is working as a trainee at Gandhi Nagar Hospital, they portrayed the case and resulting death as a road accident.

Initially wife of the deceased told the cops that her husband died in an accident at Gol Gujral near Revenue Complex and was shifted to Gandhi Nagar hospital in an auto rickshaw where doctors declared him "brought dead". After this, Section 302 IPC was added and further investigation into the matter is in progress.