Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police on Tuesday arrested five suspects, including a 38-year-old man who allegedly hatched a conspiracy to murder his wife, whom he suspected of having an affair with their neighbour, and thus hired several shooters for ₹50,000 for it.
The woman, Sanjana Kumar, 35, a resident of Lal Bagh, Loni, was shot at on January 25 evening and suffered a gunshot injury on back. She was pillion-riding a motorbike being driven by her husband, Hari Shankar, who runs a mobile phone shop and is also a financier. They were returning home from a vegetable market.
Officials said it was a second attempt on the woman’s life in one month.
Police said that after a detailed investigation, they arrested her husband, Hari Shankar, and four men — Vinit Rajput, 20, Vibhor Sharma, 31, Raj Bainsla, 19, and Arjun Singh, 20 — whom he allegedly hired for ₹50,000 to kill his wife.
“Investigation revealed that Hari Shankar, for the past one-and-half years, had been suspecting his wife of having an affair with a neighbour. He also has an inferiority complex due to being bald. The couple often had altercations over the issue. About three months ago, he even threatened her with a divorce. The matter was pacified by the woman’s in-laws, as she denied any link with the neighbour,” Gyan Prakash Rai, assistant commissioner of police (Ankur Vihar circle), told HT.
Police said that suspect Shankar, through one of his contacts, presently lodged at jail in Gautam Budh Nagar, came in touch with Rajput, who roped in three others. Shankar promised them ₹50,000 to kill his wife, and paid ₹35,000 in advance, officials added.
“The first attempt was in the last week of December, 2025, when Sanjana had gone to Mangal Bazar in Loni’s Indirapuri. Then, the suspects had fired a shot at her but she wasn’t injured. She could not assess that it was a gunshot and thought that it was some firecracker…. She told us about the incident during her statements. On January 25, three shooters, Vibhor, Raj, and Arjun, were on a bike and fired at her,” the ACP added.
Police said that after shooting at and injuring the woman, the three were fleeing when a sub inspector (SI) Nitish Kumar stopped them at a nearby road for triple-riding. He clicked their photos for challan, but they sped away.
“Our teams also found three men in CCTV footage near the scene of the crime. Later, the photo clicked by the SI also came in handy while confirming their identities. With the help of local inputs, suspects were arrested, and they revealed Shankar’s involvement,” the ACP added.
Officials said they suspected some insider’s role, as her exact movements were known to shooters.
After the January 25 incident, Shankar, the husband, lodged an FIR for attempted murder and named his neighbours, including the man he suspected of having with his wife, police said.
The woman is still under treatment at a hospital in Delhi with the bullet inside her body, officials said. The couple have two minor children.