Drunk man kills wife over suspicion of extramarital affair

Mumbai: A 38-year-old man was arrested in Virar East on Saturday for allegedly stabbing his wife multiple times resulting in her death. The police officials said the preliminary investigation reveals that the woman was killed over her husband’s suspicion that she was having an extramarital affair.
The accused, identified as Gopal Rathod, works as a security guard in a factory and stays in building number 16 of Ekvira Society in Manvel Pada, Virar East. According to neighbours and family members, Rathod was an alcoholic and drank every day. One of the neighbours told the police that Rathod used to verbally abuse his wife Bharti, 32, almost every day and physically assaulted her after consuming alcohol. The police said that Bharti often insisted that he quit drinking which aggravated Rathod.
On Friday morning, the Virar police received a distressed call from the residents of the Ekvira building about disturbances and screams heard from the flat where Rathod and his wife stayed.
Upon reaching the spot, the police found Bharti’s body with multiple stab wounds on her chest and stomach. The police found a bloodied knife next to her body and her husband was missing. The police sent the body for post-mortem and registered a case of murder against Rathod. On Saturday, the police tracked him in Kalyan through his mobile phone location and he was arrested.
Rathod, who confessed to the crime, said that on Friday, he reached home at 4.30am and found that Bharti was speaking to someone on her mobile phone. Assuming that she was having an affair, Rathod started beating her up. When Bharti started defending herself, Rathod, who was drunk, picked up a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Bharti multiple times till she collapsed.
“We have produced Rathod before the magistrate court where he was remanded in police custody till Tuesday,” said an officer.