Axed by paramour, woman dies, husband fighting for life

NAGPUR: Geeteshwari Madavi, 21, died while her husband Chandrakant was critically injured in an axe attack while they were sleeping at an under-construction house in Date Layout, Jaitala, in the early hours of Monday. Chandrakant, a building labourer, is fighting for life with a gash on his head at Government Medical College and Hospital.
MIDC police, which have registered a case of murder, have sent teams to Ballarshah in Chandrapur and Hinganghat in Wardha in search of the alleged prime suspect Sachin Pendor, a labourer. Sachin used a pickaxe to attack the sleeping couple. Police said Sachin had an illicit relationship with Geeteshwari. After eloping in December last year, the two had been staying at Hinganghat till the first week of this month. Geeteshwari had returned to her parents’ place as she had been unhappy with Sachin too; who would torture her after getting drunk.

Geeteshwari is the eldest of three siblings. Her family had planned to marry her younger sister Draupadi with Sachin’s elder brother Prem, who too is a labourer.

Married to Chandrakant around three years ago, Geeteshwari had decided to part ways with him after a year as they had a rift over spending money on her treatment during a complication in pregnancy, leading to an abortion. Geeteshwari had then gone to Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, to stay with her husband. But she later returned to the city to stay with her family, who stayed at various construction places while working as labourers. The family was currently engaged in construction work at the residence at Babre family, and residing there.

Khemlal, father of the deceased, said he had called up Chandrakant a couple of days ago to suggest he should take Geeteshwari back with him to Seoni. “Chandrakant had reached on Sunday and was to leave immediately. I insisted he stay back for a day. Had they left then, my daughter would not have died this way,” he said.

Khemlal said he woke up on hearing a shrill cry for help. “My daughter was already dead by the time we reached the spot. My son-in-law too had been attacked in his sleep. No one came to help until the police were alerted by our contractor,” he said. “Sachin fled in the dark,” said the grieving father.