JSR trader among 4 held for wife's murder

JAMSHEDPUR: Two days after the wife of a plywood trader was shot dead in Seraikela-Kharsawan district last Friday night, the trader and three others have been arrested from Jamshedpur on charges of killing the woman. The arrested were forwarded to jail on Monday, police said.
The four arrested accused were identified as trader Ravi Agarwal, trader's former driver Mukesh Mishra, and two contract killers - Rahul Kumar Dubey and Pankaj Kumar Sahani.The assailants are residents of Babudih under the Sidhgora police station limits of Jamshedpur.
Two assailants had waylaid the couple - Ravi (45) and Jyoti (37) - and their two children at Kanderbera Chowk under the Chandil police station limits on NH-33 in Seraikela-Kharsawan when they were returning home from a restaurant in a car on March 29. The contract killers put up a show to kill Ravi and then shot dead Jyoti in front of the children, police added.
SP Manish Toppo said the father of the deceased, Premchand Agarwal, lodged a complaint with the Chandil police on March 30, accusing son-in-law Ravi of killing Jyoti.
Acting on the complaint, an assailant was arrested from Jamshedpur last Saturday. His confessions made in front of police and police interrogation of Ravi revealed that Ravi had promised Rs 19 lakh to the shooters to kill Jyoti to end their marital discord.
The SP added that Ravi's claim that he had received an anonymous letter in February demanding Rs 25 lakh was also woven to link his wife's murder to the extortion demand.
SP Toppo said the couple was married in 2016.
Ravi had made three failed attempts to kill Jyoti in the past two-and-a-half years. He had hired other shooters for Rs 9 lakh around six months ago to kill Jyoti. Prior to that, Ravi had tried to kill Jyoti while on a trip to Gangtok. Earlier, the arrested trader had also tried to strangulate his wife at home, he stated.