Woman thrown off 4th floor balcony by husband, dies; 3 held in Agra

Police have arrested three people, including the woman's husband, Akash Gautam, and booked them in sections 302 (murder) and 34 (act done by several persons with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.

Agra:A 30-year-old woman died after she was allegedly thrown off the fourth-floor balcony of her house by her husband and four other people, police here said on Saturday. Ritika Singh, the deceased, was living in a house in the Tajganj Police Station area with a friend she had allegedly met on Facebook, after having separated from her husband, they said.

Police have arrested three people, including the woman's husband, Akash Gautam, and booked them under Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (act done by several persons with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, they said. "Preliminary investigations have revealed that a married woman identified as Ritika Singh was residing with her Facebook friend Vipul Agrawal in an apartment in Nagla Mewati under Tajganj Police Station limits.

"The incident took place on Friday at about 11 am, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Agra, Sudhir Kumar Singh, said. Ritika was a resident of Ghaziabad and had married Akash Gautam, a resident of Firozabad, in 2014 and had separated from in 2018, he said. "On Friday, Akash Gautam the husband of Ritika Singh reached the apartment along with two women and two men".

"There they had an argument with Ritika and her boyfriend Vipul Agrawal and later assaulted both of them, as informed by the Vipul Agrawal to police", the SSP said. According to the complaint filed by Agrawal, the accused tied his hands and locked him in the bathroom of the flat. He said the accused tied Ritika's hands also before throwing her off from the balcony of the apartment, police said.

Agrawal escaped by shouting for help from the bathroom window and drawing the attention of the neighbours, they said. "A case has been registered against five persons under sections 302 and 34 of the IPC at Tajganj Police Station in Agra. Three people have been arrested, while two are absconding, Superintendent of Police (SP City) Vikas Kumar told PTI.

The SSP said that the police have got the CCTV footage of the incident and are collecting more CCTV footage of the apartment. "We will also recreate the crime scene, and if needed take help from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL)," said Sudhir Singh.