Husband strangles, electrocutes wife to death, stages robbery attempt to cover up

The staged robbery turned out to be an attempt—an unsuccessful one though —by the husband to cover up his brutal act of murdering his wife just seven month into the marriage as he suspected her romantic involvement with someone else.

Swapnil (26) reported the death of his wife Sheetal Swapnil Ranpise (23), a resident of Ranjangaon Sandas in Shirur, at noon on July 3. He told the police the door of their house was latched from outside.

Swapnil told the police that Sheetal had not been not picking his call for a while and upon reaching home he found her dead. “Their house was messy with things scattered around. The woman’s neck had been strangled with a nylon rope and had marks of possible electric shock given to her with a live power cable. We registered a case of murder,” said Pankaj Deshmukh, superintendent of police with Pune Rural. Shirur police and Pune Crime Branch launched a joint probe.

“What raised our suspicions at first glance was the emotionless demeanor of the husband. As we dug further we found out that the couple had been constantly fighting . CCTV footage showed a sequence of events contradictory to that narrated by the husband. Over the period of his questioning, his story kept changing, ” said Jyotiram Gunjavate, in-charge of the Shirur police station.

Deputy Superintendent of police Prashant Dhole said, “We questioned the husband thoroughly and confronted him about the contradictions. It was thus revealed that he himself had murdered his wife over suspicion of an affair after which we arrested him.”

Officials said Swapnil completed his graduation in Chemistry and MBA, and works for a private firm.