Man kills wife, dies after consuming pesticide in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: A 40-year-old migrant labourer allegedly hacked his wife to death and then killed himself by consuming pesticide in Ludhiana’s Gurdev Nagar area on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

As per information, the accused had an altercation with his 25-year-old wife on Tuesday night. The couple, along with their three children and some relatives, lived in an abandoned house in Gurdev Nagar and used to iron clothes for a living.

ACP Jatinder Chopra said the accused’s eldest son told the police that his father was a drunkard and used to have frequent fights with the victim, who was his second wife. The first wife had died after giving birth to the son. “On Tuesday night, the couple had an argument following which the victim went to sleep. The accused turned up later in the night with a sharp-edged weapon and attacked her on the neck, killing her on the spot,” the ACP said. He then allegedly consumed pesticide and tried to flee the spot with his toddler daughter. The relatives, who live in the adjoining room, woke up on hearing the gate open. They discovered the woman’s body in a pool of blood and raised an alarm.

The accused, meanwhile, started frothing at the mouth and collapsed. He also told them that he had consumed pesticide.

The relatives rushed him to the civil hospital, from where he was referred to Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, where he was declared dead on arrival.

The ACP said they are probing the case from all angles and are yet to recover the weapon used in the crime. The accused’s eldest son, 17, in his statement to the police, said that he and his siblings, aged six and one, were sleeping in the same room but he did not see the crime take place. He found out about his stepmother’s death after his relatives woke him up.