An extramarital affair, a love marriage, an “abusive” husband, a murder and an almost foolproof ploy to get away with it – this crime unfolded like nothing less than a pulp thriller murder mystery in Haryana’s Sonipat.
A woman and her lover have been arrested by the Delhi police for allegedly murdering the former’s husband, almost a year after the crime. One more accomplice, who actually committed the crime, is still at large.
While all the accused managed to get away with the murder for almost a year, it was one small mistake that came back to bite them and led to their arrest – a mobile phone which was supposed to be destroyed, but was not.
The Delhi police arrested 34-year-old Soniya, who is a resident of the national capital’s Alipur area, and her 28-year-old boyfriend Rohit, who hails from Haryana’s Sonipat, on Saturday for murdering her husband. A third accomplice, Vijay, who is Soniya’s distant relative and actually carried out the killing, is not yet arrested.
According to police, Soniya’s husband Pritam Prakash, 42, was murdered over her affair with Rohit and also due to his abusive behaviour towards her.
What really happened
Soniya was a teenager when she fell in love with Pritam and married him against the wishes of both of their families. The marriage was never reported by their families to the police, and was also later accepted by them, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Harsh Indora.
The couple had three children – a son and two daughters.
Back in 2024, on July 5, Pritam had come to pick his wife from her sister’s place in Sonipat’s Gannaur. However, they had an argument and he left. Angered over Pritam’s abusive behaviour, Sonia asked her sister’s brother-in-law Vijay to kill him and offered ₹50,000 to carry out the crime.
Later, an unsuspecting Pritam returned and pleaded with Sonia, after which she let him stay at her sister’s house. However, that night, Vijay followed through with what Sonia had asked him to do and killed Pritam. He also dumped Pritam’s body in a drain and sent a video of the same to Sonia on social media, which was later deleted.
How the accused covered their tracks
Days later, on July 20, Soniya approached police in Delhi and filed a missing complaint for her husband. She told police that Pritam went out one day and never returned. The police took the case on its face value and probed it like a regular missing person complaint. However, several weeks into the investigation they discovered something suspicious – no digital or financial footprint of Pritam.
Around the same time, a body was discovered by the Haryana police in Sonipat which remained unidentified.
The undoing
A year later, all the pieces started to fall in place when one day, Pritam’s mobile number had become active again. The police tracked it and found it to be operating from somewhere in Sonipat, which led to Rohit’s arrest.
According to the police, after Pritam’s murder, Soniya sold his autorickshaw for ₹4.5 lakh and gave his phone to Rohit, asking him to destroy it. However, he did not destroy what was probably the most crucial evidence of the murder.
The police will now use the DNA samples preserved during the post-mortem of the unidentified body and use them for conclusive identification.
The confession
After being arrested, Rohit initially tried to mislead the police but gave in soon enough and confessed to the crime, said police. He told the police about his relationship with Sonia and how both of them conspired to kill Pritam. He also told police about Soniya’s contract with Vijay to carry out the killing.
Rohit, who works as a cab driver, recently got married in April this year but continued to have a relationship with Sonia.
Both victim, accused have criminal pasts
According to DCP Indora, the victim Pritam Prakash was a known history-sheeter in Delhi’s Alipur and had as many as 10 cases registered against him, including under serious charges such as the Arms Act, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, and others. He was declared a proclaimed offender by the court.
Rohit had also been involved in four criminal cases related to murder and arms possession before this.
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)