UP: Wife arrested after BJP functionary found dead

Meerut (UP), Jun 12 (PTI) The wife of a local BJP functionary has been arrested in connection with his death at his house in Govindpuri here, a senior police official said on Monday.

Nishant Garg’s body, which had a gunshot wound, was found on Saturday and his wife Sonia was detained that night, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rohit Singh Sajwan said.

On Sunday, the 35-year-old’s brother Gaurav had lodged a complaint against Sonia, based on which a case of culpable homicide was registered and she was arrested. She was produced before a court that sent her to judicial custody, police said.

The SSP said during interrogation, Sonia stated that Garg wanted to kill her using a country-made pistol but in a scuffle, a shot was fired, and the bullet hit her husband and he died.

On Saturday, Garg’s body was found at his house in Govindpuri under suspicious circumstances with a bullet wound to his chest, police had said then. Sonia had claimed that Garg had committed suicide early Saturday.

In her statement to police earlier, Sonia had also claimed that her husband got extremely drunk on Friday night and thrashed her.

Police had said around 3 am, she left for her parent’s house, not very far away from Garg’s residence. When she returned around 6:30 am, she saw Garg lying in a pool of blood with a bullet wound to his chest, police had earlier said quoting Sonia’s statement.

The SSP had earlier said Sonia told police that when she got back home in the morning she got scared finding her husband dead and hid the pistol.

When police reached the spot, they could not find the weapon. But later, when Sonia was interrogated, she took out her husband’s country-made pistol and mobile phone from an almirah, and handed them over to an inspector, they said.

Sonia could not tell where the country-made pistol came from, the SSP had said, adding that an empty liquor bottle and a glass was also found in their room.

BJP mahanagar president Mukesh Singhal said Garg was the social media in-charge of the regional unit (Western Uttar Pradesh) of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).’