Retd chemistry professor kills doctor husband

A 60-year-old retired professor of chemistry in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district allegedly killed her husband, a doctor, by slipping him some sleeping pills in his food and electrocuting him because she suspected that he was involved in an affair with another woman, police said on Sunday.

The police arrested Mamta Pathak, former professor of chemistry at the Maharaja Chhatrasal Government college in the area, for killing her 63-year-old husband Dr Neeraj Pathak, said Sachin Sharma, superintendent of police, Chhatarpur.

Sharma said Mamta made an elaborate plan to avoid getting caught. After killing the doctor at their residence in Chhatarpur’s Loknathpuram on April 29, she left for Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh the next morning and reported the death on May 1 after returning home.

The SP said: “Dr Neeraj Pathak was found dead at his residence on May 1. His wife Mamta told the police that she had gone to Jhansi and when she came back on May 1, she found her husband dead. During investigation, police found an audio of Dr Pathak, which he had released on social media on April 28, that he was being harassed by his wife Mamta and son. When police interrogated Mamta, she confessed that she killed her husband by plotting electrocution.”

The police are investigating if the couple’s 28-year-old son, Nitesh, was also involved in the murder.

Sharma added: “Mamta was a professor of chemistry and she knew that the presence of sleeping pills or any poison wouldn’t be found in the postmortem report after two days of the death, so she made a plan to hide the death of her husband for two days. She gave an overdose of sleeping pills to Pathak on April 29 and later used a live electric wire to kill him inside their bedroom.”

A forensic expert, who wished to remain anonymous, said it’s not necessary that traces of chemicals found in sleeping pills won’t show up in postmortem report as it could depend on several factors.

The next day, the accused and her son left for Jhansi, reportedly to get tested for Covid-19. According to Mamata’s statement to the police, there was a backlog in collection of samples for Covid-19 testing in Chhatarpur.

According to her statement to the police, the retired professor told Nitesh while leaving that his father was sleeping. Mamata and Nitesh returned home on May 1, when the accused reported that her husband died after being electrocuted.

“Mamta suspected that her husband was in a relationship with another woman. A few months back, she lodged a complaint with police that her husband used to give sedatives to her in the night to meet a woman. Police investigated the matter and found the accusation to be false,” Sharma said.

THE ACCUSED SUSPECTED THAT HER HUSBAND WAS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ANOTHER WOMAN, SAY COPS