Man strangles wife to marry another woman in Bihar

A man strangulated his wife to death to marry another woman in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, 71 km north of state capital, Patna.

Police said the incident took place at Bhoraha village in Bochaha police station area, 25 km northeast of Muzaffarpur, late on Wednesday night.

Deputy superintendent of police (Muzaffarpur east) Muttafique Ahmad said accused Amod Mahto, 32, a truck driver by profession, had been arrested.

Ahmad said Mahto, a father of three children, was trying to flee on Thursday morning when his father and some villagers caught him and handed him over to police.

Mahto’s eldest son Satyam, 8, said he and his two brothers Shivam, 5, and Sundram, 3, were witness to the crime. “My father returned home at around 11pm. After dinner, he started thrashing my mother and later tied her mouth with a towel before strangling her with a rope,” Satyam told police.

Bochaha police station SHO Dhananjay Sharma said Mahto had illicit relationship with two women of nearby villages. “He killed his wife Suman alias Priyanka Devi, 26, to marry one of them,” the station house officer (SHO) said, adding that one of the women had made a call to Mahto’s cellphone when he was being interrogated.

“When we received the call, the woman, presuming that Mahto was answering the phone, enquired about the killing of his wife. Later, we traced the call to Bharatpur village in neighbouring Gaighat police station area. This shows that Mahto had killed his wife in a planned manner,” said Sharma.

Amod Mahto’s father Shankar Matho said his son had returned home from duty on Wednesday night and had a quarrel with Suman. “On Thursday morning, he seemed to be in a hurry to leave the house. This made me suspicious as he would normally stay at home for two or three days before returning to work. When I tried to stop him, he thrashed me and tried to flee. Meanwhile, Amod’s son Satyam also came out saying his father had killed his mother. So, I called some villagers, who chased Amod for more than 1 km before catching him,” Shankar Mahto added.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times