THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fifty-two-year-old Shakha Kumari, who was found dead in her house near Vellarada on Saturday, was smothered and later electrocuted by her husband Arun, the police have revealed.
The Vellarada police, who had taken 28-year-old Arun into custody on Saturday, is set to charge him with murder. The police said the autopsy revealed that electric shock had caused the death of Shakha Kumari.
Vellarada Station House Officer M Sreekumar said the couple had a fight on Saturday reportedly over having a child and this culminated in the murder. “We had booked him in a case of unnatural death. Now, we will register a murder case against Arun,” he said.
Arun had told the police that Shakha was found in an unconscious state in her house and he took her to a nearby hospital, where she was declared “brought dead”.
However, relatives and neighbours of the woman had raised suspicion over her death.
Sreekumar said though Arun had willingly married Shakha, his attitude towards her changed after the marriage. “He had developed an inferiority complex. Also, he was frustrated as his family members did not approve of his marriage with a woman twice his age,” he said.
“What led to the fatal quarrel was Shakha’s wish to conceive a child. Arun was against this as he felt it was better to have a child later. They had a fight over the issue on Saturday and Arun smothered Shakha with his hands. When she became unconscious, he dragged her to the hall and then electrocuted her,” the officer added.
According to police sources, Arun fancied Shakha’s wealth and had received Rs 5 lakh from her for meeting marriage expenses.
She owned around 10 acres of land and had recently received Rs 17 lakh as payment for selling rubber trees for slaughter tapping,” said a source.
“Despite being rich, there was not much cash left in her bank accounts and this will be covered during the probe. We will check whether Arun had drained her account,” the source said.