Woman’s body with gunshot wound to head found in Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD: City police were stunned to receive a message on Monday morning informing them that one Anita Verma, 35, a resident of Shreya Residency in Odhav, had committed suicide by shooting herself. They found that the weapon used was a country-made illegal firearm. The question that now arose was how did the woman get such a weapon.
Things fell into place when they found that the woman’s husband was Amit Verma, alias Sonu Punjabi who is known to work in Vapi, and had fled after the incident. “We are investigating every angle including murder, as Punjabi has a criminal record and was associated with a local gang some time ago,” said a senior police official.
“We found a twelve-bore gun, a scythe and some other bladed weapons in the house,” said an Odhav police official. For now, police have registered a case of accidental death and are investigating the matter.
DCP Zone 5 Akshayraj Makwana said an witness to the incident, who is related to Punjabi, said that he had heard the gunshot from Anita’s room. “He rushed to the room and saw Anita lying dead with the revolver in her hand and a bullet wound to her temple. He immediately called Punjabi, who had gone out to get milk. Punjabi rushed home and on seeing his wife lying dead in bed, fled,” said DCP Makwana.
A senior police official said that some local residents said that Anita had sick for a long time and this could be a reason for her taking the extreme step. “Others said that they had heard frequent quarrels between husband and wife. We are investigating every angle,” a police official said.
The biggest question police have is why did the husband flee. “We have formed teams to nab him. We have sent the body for a postmortem and the weapon for forensic ballistic tests, to ascertain if the deceased actually held the gun and shot herself. If traces of gunpowder are found on her hand, it could be suicide,” said a police official.