- The woman, named locally as 23-year-old Pinky, was expecting twins
- She and her husband, Sukhdev, got in to a fight and he brutally attacked her
- The alleged killer fled their home, before being arrested and charged
A wife who was six months pregnant with twins was allegedly tied to a bed and burned alive by her husband, in a murder case that has horrified India.
Police said that the 23-year-old woman, named only as Pinky, was killed by her husband, Sukhdev, after getting into an argument in their home in Buled Nangal village in the Rayya area of Amritsar, near the border with Pakistan, on Friday.
Sukhdev allegedly assaulted her, tied her to a bed in the front garden of their home and set her alight, police said.
Pinky tragically died on the spot, while the alleged killer fled before being hunted down, arrested and charged with her murder.
Police said the couple had a strained relationship, and would often argue over a range of issues.
Police said that the 23-year-old woman, named only as Pinky (pictured), was killed by her husband, Sukhdev, after getting into an argument in their home
Pinky tragically died on the spot, while the alleged killer fled before police hunted down, arrested and charged him with her murder
India’s National Commission for Women said in a post to X: ‘Appalled by the horrifying incident in Amritsar where a man allegedly set his pregnant wife on fire. The brutality of this act is unimaginable.
‘[NCW Chair] Rekha Sharma has written a letter to [the Director General of Police of) Punjab to arrest the perpetrator and submit an action report in three days.’
India’s growing problem of violence against women and girls is well documented. The BMJ reported that one in three women in India is likely to have been subjected to violence at the hands of an ‘intimate partner.’
The research suggested that just one in 10 of these women file formal reports to the police.
According to survey data, physical violence was the most common form of abuse, with more than a quarter of women reporting instances of this. Sexual and emotional abuse happened to 13% and 7% of women respectively.
Earlier this month, three men were arrested in Jharkhand, in the east of India, over the murder of a mother who accused two boys of gang-raping her deaf and mute teenage daughter.
The 50-year-old mother, who has not been named, was working in a field when the fathers of the two 14-year-old boys allegedly hacked her to death with the help of a relative.
Cops believe the murder was a brutal act of revenge after she confided in police following the alleged rape of her 19-year-old daughter.
‘The motive appears to be revenge for the police action initiated against the sons and the land dispute with the victim,’ local police reported, adding that they had recovered a weapon.
Two fourteen-year-old boys are suspected of having broken the lock to the woman’s home in Gumla village while she was asleep one night last month, before distracting her in order to kidnap her deaf-mute daughter.
They then dragged her to a school building and raped her, according to the investigating officer.
