‘Struck him repeatedly on head, face with hammer’: Wife, her lover butcher man in UP

MEERUT: Police claimed to have cracked the murder case of a 50-year-old farmer who was beaten to death with a hammer in Bareilly on Saturday night and arrested his 30-year-old wife and her 26-year-old lover.

The duo conspired to kill him for objecting to their affair, said police on Tuesday.Police said Mamta Devi, a native of Bihar, held her husband Sureshpal Singh down while he was asleep on a cot as her lover Hotam Singh, a daily-wage labourer, struck him repeatedly on the head and face with a hammer found in the room, killing him on the spot. Hotam fled with the weapon while Mamta remained at the house.SP (South) Anshika Verma said, "The couple had been married for 11 years and had three children.

Mamta and Hotam were in an illicit relationship for the past three years. Sureshpal had come to know about the affair which led to frequent arguments between the married couple and confrontations with Hotam. Sureshpal often assaulted Mamta asking her to end the relationship and hence she conspired to eliminate him." Sirauli SHO Vinod Singh said, "To mislead the police, Mamta woke up her eldest son Arjun, 11, who was sleeping in another room at the time of the incident and asked him to inform the village head.

Mamta told villagers she panicked and could not call for help. Meanwhile, she destroyed her phone's SIM card to erase call records and claimed that she found her husband lying in a pool of blood when she woke up to use the toilet."ACP Verma said, "During questioning Mamta broke down and confessed to the crime. She was arrested based on call records and other evidence. Hotam was also arrested following a stakeout at Shivpuri Tiraha on the Mirganj road. The blood-stained hammer used in the crime was seized on his disclosure. An FIR has been registered under BNS section 103 (murder). Both accused were produced before a court and sent to jail on Tuesday.

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