Resident of Nalasopara stabbed his wife to death with a kitchen knife after she arrived late at home. He also wounded his daughter-in-law, who had jumped into the melee
A 49-year-old resident of Nalasopara stabbed his wife to death with a kitchen knife Thursday night after she arrived late at home. He also wounded his daughter-in-law, who had jumped into the melee. The man was arrested by the Tulinj police from the Nalasopara railway station last evening.
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Ranjana Sawant (left) and daughter-in-law Aruna
The police said Rajendra Sawant, who worked as a cab driver with a private firm in Bandra, had been pestering his wife, Ranjana (48), for a divorce for the last 10 years. But she turned him down each time. An embittered Sawant moved out of their home in Satyant Nagar, Nalasopara East in 2006, but the couple reconciled and he moved back in 2013. The reconciliation, however, didn’t spell an end to Sawant’s demand. He continued to cold-shoulder his family, which also comprised a son and a daughter-in-law, by limiting his contact with it.
On Thursday, Ranjana left for a rally organised on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti. Sawant returned home in the evening and waited to take up the matter of the divorce again with her. Ranjana, though, returned late at night. Allegedly upset at being made to wait that long, he began beating her up on her arrival. He even allegedly tried to strangle her, but Ranjana escaped. Sawant then picked up a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her to death. The couple’s daughter-in-law, Aruna (26), tried to save Ranjana, but he slashed her on the arms and hands. A profusely bleeding Aruna managed to escape and alert neighbours, who called in the police.
The police found Ranjana dead in the house and Sawant missing. After a manhunt was launched for him, the police picked him up from the Nalasopara railway station on Friday. “We have registered a case of murder and another of attempt to murder against Sawant,” said Sudarshan Poddar, Tulinj police sub-inspector.