Hubby held as suspect in death of wife
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 28 2019:
A 40 year old man was remanded to judicial custody by the Court of JMIC Imphal West I, in connection with the death of his wife.
The accused Ashok Baniya s/o Surabir Baniya of Kalapahar Kharkhola (presently staying at Khongampat Chingol) was produced before the Court after completion of 3 days police custody, along with a prayer for remanding him in judicial custody today.
The IO of the case submitted that the elder brother of the deceased woman (identified as one Januka Baniya), lodged a complaint to the OC Sekmai PS at around noon of June 25 stating that his younger sister was beaten to death by her husband Ashok Baniya at around 9 pm the previous night and that the dead body had been brought up to Kanglatongbi for cremation at Kanglatongbi Kamal Pukhri.
A regular case was registered and Ashok Baniya was arrested.
During the course of investigation, he disclosed that he along with his wife worked at the site of a stone crusher located at Khongampat Chingol and on the night of June 24, he had brought one litre of liquor to drink with his wife.
Ashok claimed that later, while sleeping, his wife suddenly slapped him twice on his face without any reason which angered him and as such, he grabbed a wooden stool which was lying next to their bed and hit his wife on her head.
He disclosed that his wife didn't utter even a single word and as such, he slept without looking into his wife's condition.
On the other hand, some prosecution witnesses disclosed that in the morning June 24, they heard heated arguments between the husband and his wife who was complaining of stomach pain.
They revealed that when they went to check on the two after completing their work, they saw Ashok holding and rubbing his wife's hand.
On seeing them, Ashok freed his wife and she fell down on the bed.
But when they checked on her, they found that she was dead.
Later they informed the proprietor of the worksite as well as Ashok's relatives.
The witnesses also said that the next day, when they were loading the body into the ambulance, they were questioned by the Pradhan of Kanglatongbi regarding the deceased but they told him that they had no idea about the incident.
It was only later that they heard that the victim had been killed by her husband by hitting her with a wooden stool.
The IO submitted that investigation so far has revealed that the accused husband, as a result of the heated argument, hit his wife on her head thus killing her and prayed for remanding the husband in judicial custody.
The Court, after hearing the submission and after going through the case record, remanded Ashok Baniya to judicial custody till July 12 .