Pregnant woman shot dead by ex-husband, caught after dramatic chase

Rajkot: Bullet shots triggered panic in the congested Ravi Park locality in the city on Tuesday afternoon when a 27-year-old pregnant woman was shot dead inside her house by her former husband.
At around 1pm, the woman Sarita and her live-in partner Pankaj Chavda were having lunch when the accused Aakash Maurya barged inside and fired at her from a country-made gun. Sarita, who was seven months pregnant, died on the spot due to heavy blood loss.
Sarita and Maurya, both natives of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, had separated around a year-and-a-half ago. She had come to Rajko with some acquaintance and met Pankaj. They started living together and she was running a beauty parlour at her house.
Maurya’s father Ramanuj owns a readymade garment shop in Gorkhpur and Sarita used to work there. She and Maurya fell in love and got married. However, disputes started arising in their marital life. Fed up of daily squabbles, Sarita left Gorakhpur and came to Rajkot.
Preliminary investigation suggested that Sarita had taken Rs 3 lakh from their house in Gorakhpur when she came to Rajkot. Three months ago, Maurya had come to Rajkot after getting to know that she was living with Pankaj. He met Sarita then and there was a bitter altercation over money, police said.
On Tuesday, Maurya hired a rickshaw and went to Ravi Park.
After firing at Sarita, Maurya ran out of the house, leaving the weapon at the spot. Pankaj tried to catch hold of Maurya and chased him for some distance. But Maurya boarded the rickshaw and sped away. Pankaj then saw his neighbour Kunal Chudasama going in the car and told him about the murder. Chudasama and Pankaj started following the rickshaw in the former’s car. On the way, Chudasama also informed the traffic police near Indira Circle about the murder and requested them to alert the police control room.
“A traffic policeman also got into their car and followed the rickshaw which went towards Madhapar chokdi on 150 foot Road. More police teams also came from various directions,” police said. After a seven km long chase that lasted 40 minutes, Maurya was finally nabbed.
“We are investigating the case in detail and trying to get the background of the families,” said Manoharsinh Jadeja, deputy commissioner of police (DCP).
Same rickshaw hired
The rickshaw that Aakash Maurya hired on Tuesday was the same that he had taken three months ago when he came to Rajkot. He had befriended the driver and taken his mobile number. He asked the rickshaw driver to wait for about 15 minutes and went walking inside the lanes to Sarita house.