Wife, paramour among 5 held for murder of factory worker

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Ludhiana: Less than a fortnight after a body was found at a vacant plot in SBS Nagar, the police on Monday claimed to have solved the case with the arrest of the victim’s wife, her lover and three of their accomplices.
The accused have been identified as Sunita Devi, 40, wife of deceased Suneel Kumar, 42, of Sunet; her paramour Mandeep Singh, 30, an autorickshaw driver and resident of BRS Nagar; Sunny Kumar, also of Sunet; Raman Rajput of Guru Arjun Dev Nagar; and Prakash Kumar of Puneet Nagar on Tajpur Road.
On May 22, Dugri police had registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 201 (disappearance of evidence), 34 and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC after body of Suneel Kumar, a clerk in a factory, was found at the plot near City Centre in G-Block of SBS Nagar.
Ludhiana police commissioner Sukhchain Singh Gill said they learned that Sunita, Mandeep, and his accomplices were involved in the murder. “After Mandeep was arrested from outside his rented house, he divulged the chronology of the incident,” he added.
Police officials said Mandeep told them that he used to drop his three-year-old daughter at a playschool in BRS Nagar, where Sunita worked as a helper. They fell in love about eight months ago and about a month ago Suneel came to know of it. This led to fights between the couple and Sunita told Mandeep that her husband thrashed and tortured her.
Mandeep told cops that he met his friend Sunny and told him about it and he sent him to Pankaj Rajput, who was lodged in Ludhiana Central Jail in an attempt to murder case.
Mandeep met Pankaj in jail and he told him to meet Raman Rajput, 18.
Mandeep said he, Sunita, Sunny, Raman and his accomplice Prakash then conspired to scare Suneel. On May 21 around 8.30pm, they stopped him on a stretch between Gurdev Nagar and Sunet when he was returning home on his bicycle. Mandeep suddenly changed the plan and decided to kill him.
Cops said the accused hit Suneel with an iron rod, strangulated him with a chain and threw his body at the plot. They added that acting on the disclosures of the accused, they arrested Sunita from Sunet village on June 2 and Sunny, Raman and Prakash on June 3 when they were going to Mandeep’s house to return the Zen car used in the crime.
In charge of SBS Nagar police post assistant sub-inspector Sushil Kumar said Mandeep had matrimonial dispute with his wife, who worked as a receptionist at a private hospital.