Man arrested for killing wife, misleading cops

New Delhi: Restaurateur Pankaj Mehra was arrested on Thursday for allegedly killing his wife in a pre-planned manner while their two-year-old son was sleeping in his mother’s lap near Rohini Jail.

Pankaj had tried to mislead the police by claiming that his wife was killed by moneylenders, who had been threatening him as he owed them money.

The child was splattered with his mother’s blood as Pankaj shot his wife Priya Mehra (34) inside his car while they were returning from Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, said a senior police officer.

Pankaj claimed that two men in a car intercepted their vehicle near Rohini Jail. One of them broke open his side of the window and got into a scuffle with him while brandishing a pistol, said deputy commissioner of police (Northwest) Milind Dumbere.

He claimed that during the scuffle two rounds were fired and his wife was hit. But before he could be attacked, Pankaj fled from there. He his wife to a private hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

However, when the police analysed the CCTV footage from the area, they found only Pankaj’s car moving on the route. There was no other vehicle visible on the route that was trailing him, said the DCP.

In addition, the ballistic evidence indicated that the woman had been shot at close range since the entry and exit wounds were at 180 degrees.

Pankaj was confronted with these evidences and confessed, in the early hours of Thursday, to killing his wife.

The accused had a strained relationship with his wife. Pankaj was having an extramarital affair. The couple had frequent fights over the issue and Priya left him as a consequence. The couple had gotten back for the sake of their two-year-old child a couple of months ago, the police said.

The accused was also under heavy debt. He had two restaurants — one on Deshbandhu Gupta Road and one in Hudson Lane. However, both had to be shut down because of running into losses, the police said.