KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, April 1: Finally, the plywood merchant Ravi Agarwal turned out to be a conspirator in his wife’s murder that had rocked the steel city and the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district 48 hours ago.
Ravi Agarwal got his 39-year-old wife Jyoti Agarwal murdered by engaging contract killers as the marital life had turned sour due to the alleged regular bickering between the two.
Three assailants arrested
Besides Ravi Agarwal, three of the five criminals involved in the murder have also been arrested.
The three others who were arrested are Pankaj Sahni, Mukesh Mishra and Rohit Kumar, all residents of the Sidhgora area.
Ravi Agarwal gave Rs 16 lakh contract to kill wife
Revealing about the breakthrough, the Seraikela-Kharsawan SP, Manish Toppo said Ravi Agarwal had given the contract for killing his wife at Rs 16 lakhs of which Rs three lakhs had already been paid.
“Ravi Agarwal had tried to kill his wife earlier also about six months ago, but after failing to do so he had made a fresh attempt by engaging contract killers,” said Toppo while talking to the media at a press conference in Adityapur on Monday.
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According to the SP, the accused Ravi Agarwal had on March 29 night taken his family (wife and two sons) to a restaurant at Bhilaiahadi for dinner. While returning home in Sonari, Ravi Agarwal had stopped the car near 10th Mile Stone on the plea of vomiting.
As soon as he stopped the car a gang of criminals attacked the car and shot in the head of Jyoti Agarwal and fled. Ravi rushed the critically-injured wife to Tata Main Hospital where she was declared dead.
Ravi Agarwal confesses his crime
According to the SP, the accused had earlier on February 23 alleged in a verbal complaint that someone had demanded him to pay Rs 25 lakhs ‘rangdari’ and this was a part of his murder conspiracy so that once his wife was killed, he might escape the police glare as it would be considered that it was extortionist that might have murdered his wife.
“Ravi Agarwal has confessed his crime that he had made a false allegation of extortion demand by some unknown person and had stuck a letter in connection with the extortion demand on his car while it was parked near his plywood shop in Sitaramdera’s Bhuinadhih area so that he would be able to divert police attention during the post-murder investigation, ” said the senior police officer.
Toppo pointed out it was Pankaj Sahni who had fired at Jyoti but after his shot had misfired another shooter had fired in the head of Jyoti Agarwal.
The SP said the shooter who killed the woman and another associate are absconding, adding that efforts to arrest the duo are on.
