Marital discord: Man slits wife’s throat, surrenders

Thiruvananthapuram: Nedumangad police recorded the arrest of Karakulam resident Sajeev Kumar (49) after he surrendered before them on Thursday afternoon.
Police said that he had killed his wife Smitha (38) after a quarrel early on Thursday. He had stabbed her and slashed her throat with a kitchen knife near Karakulam under Nedumangad police station limits outside the city. He will be produced in court on Friday.
Smitha, a resident at Madappad near Mullassery in Karakulam village, is the daughter of Manoharan Nair and Indira Devi of Indira Bhavan, Chelakkad near Vilappilsala. The accused was an alcoholic. It is suspected that the culprit was in an inebriated state when he committed the crime.
He turned up at home around 11pm on Wednesday and quarrelled with his wife.
The verbal exchange escalated into a fight and he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her from behind. She ran outside to escape, but Kumar chased her down, slashed her throat and she bled to death. Shortly after the incident, he turned himself in at the police station.
Police recorded the statements from her relatives and neighbours. They admitted that Kumar, a rubber tapper by profession, used to beat up his wife under the influence of alcohol.
Though theirs had been a love marriage, he always ill-treated her. They have two daughters aged 15 and 13.
Neighbours heard the commotion but did not respond as such noisy quarrels were quite common at her home.
By the time they realized the gravity of the situation, Kumar had already inflicted a mortal injury. She died before police reached the spot.
The arrest was recorded by Nedumangad station house officer inspector K Anilkumar and SI S Shukoor.
“The accused is an aggressive character who reacts violently when he is angry. His bad temper might have led to the murder,” said Nedumangad deputy SP B Vinod.
Police conducted an inquest in the morning and sent her body to the mortuary for autopsy at noon.
The body was kept in the morgue as the family of Smitha decided to conduct her funeral on Friday.