Delhi: Man murders 19-year-old wife inside car in Rajouri Garden

A 21-year-old man reportedly stabbed his 19-year-old wife to death inside a car in Rajouri Garden, west Delhi late on Sunday night, said police, an incident that the victim’s relatives alleged came three months after he assaulted her and “left her to die”.
Police found the woman’s body, bearing several stab wounds, inside a car in the neighbourhood around 1.20am on Monday. Investigators said the two, who married this March but lived separately, had an argument, after which he killed her.
The victim’s family also alleged that the man allegedly raped her in 2018, when she was 13, and said they filed a plea in a local court.
The man beat her up in a park in Paschim Vihar on May 16 this year, said the victim’s father, in a bid to pressure her to retract the rape case.
They filed a first information report (FIR) after the assault, but the suspect was not arrested, the father said, accusing the police of not taking the complaint seriously.
“He beat her so badly that she needed stitches above her eye and head. He left her bleeding in a park,” the father said, adding that she was hospitalised for 15 days.
The accused and the victim were both residents of Raghubir Nagar, police said.
HT is not identifying the victim and the accused due to the allegations of sexual assault.
The murder came to light when head constable Ajay spotted the man walking shirtless around the neighbourhood and informed the Rajouri Garden police station, said deputy commissioner of police (west) Vichitra Veer.
“The man said he had killed his wife and that her body was in a car parked near Shivaji College,” said Veer.
Police found the victim’s body bearing multiple stab wounds in the Skoda Rapid.
“She had multiple stab wounds on her upper body,” an investigator said.
Police said that the couple lived separately since their wedding in a temple this March because their parents did not approve of their relationship.
Investigators said that the man allegedly killed the woman because she kept insisting that they should live together – something he did not want because of pressure from his own family.
“The suspect told us that he met the woman near Titarpur late on Sunday. She insisted that they start living together, but he objected. The two had an argument that turned violent and he stabbed her multiple times around 10.30pm,” said Veer.
The woman’s mother said that if police had acted in the assault case in May, her daughter would have been alive.
“I blame the police for everything… He [the accused] used to threaten my daughter, and they [police] did nothing,” she said.
A senior officer from outer Delhi police district, where Paschim Vihar East police station is located, said, “The man was not arrested at the time of the incident as he had fled. He later sought protection from a court.” A case on charges of attempt to commit culpable homicide was registered at the time, said the officer.
The family also alleged that the suspect raped her when she was in Class 8.
“We filed a plea in a court on charges of rape and kidnapping. The two were in a relationship back then, but he often assaulted her,” the woman’s father, a driver, said.
However, a senior police officer from the west district who did not want to be identified, however, said that no FIR was registered on charges of rape against the accused in the past.