Recent cases where the wife turned murderer.
Sonam Raghuvanshi jolted the nation's consciousness on Monday morning when she was accused of plotting her husband Raja's murder.
After Sonam and Raja wed on May 11, 2025, they headed to Meghalaya for their honeymoon.
On May 20 the couple travelled to Shillong and two days later Raja went missing.
His body was found on June 2 in the East Khasi Hills area while Sonam was found missing.
Initially it was believed that either her body had been abandoned by the killers, or that she was abducted.
To the nation's shock, on June 9 she surrendered at the Ghazipur police station in Uttar Pradesh after which the police arrested her in the case.
It is alleged she killed her husband in league with hired killers.
Even as the news is yet to sink in fully, Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff lists prominent cases where the wife turned murderer.
Poison killer
The police initially filed a case of accidental death and it was only later that it became known as a case of murder.
Kavita murdered her husband Kamalkant with help from her boyfriend Hitesh by slow poisoning him in November 2022 in Santacruz in the western suburbs of Mumbai.
The police's initial investigation into Kamalkant's death showed very high levels of arsenic and thallium in his blood, which led to his death.
Kavita had procured the chemicals and poisoned Kamalkant's food.
She had also killed her mother-in-law Sarladevi in as similar manner on August 13, 2022.
The blue drum murder
The brutal murder of merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput in Meerut by his wife Muskan Rastogi shook the nation in March.
On March 4, 2025, Muskan, with help of her lover Sahil Shukla, drugged Saurabh and later dismembered his body.
The duo then put parts of the dismembered body in a cement-filled blue drum and left on vacation, believing it would neither rot nor stink.
On March 18, Saurabh's family filed a missing complaint and when the police investigated the case they arrested Muskan and Sahil.
All the while, Saurabh and Muskan's six-year-old daughter kept saying, 'Papa drum mein hai (Papa is in the drum).'
YouTuber killer
On March 25, when Praveen came home, he found his YouTuber wife Ravina and her lover Suresh in a compromising position.
A scuffle followed resulting in Praveen's death.
Ravina had met fellow YouTuber Suresh on Instagram and what began as friendship soon turned into an affair.
To avoid suspicion, the duo placed Praveen's body between them on a motorbike, drove in the dark, and then dumped the body in a drain on the outskirts of Bhiwani in Haryana.
Three days later, when the police searched for Praveen on a missing complaint, his body was found in the drain.
After checking the CCTV footage, the police found Ravina riding pillion with a man with a body wedged between them.
When the police confronted Ravina, she admitted to her guilt.
Suitcase killer
A Dubai returnee, Naushad Ahmed's body was found in a suitcase in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh.
When the police started the investigation they found his wife Razia was having an affair with her nephew Ruman and the duo killed Naushad.
According to the police, Ruman killed Naushad and later cut his body with a chopper and pestle.
He then put the body in a suitcase and dumped it in an agricultural field.
Jaipur killer wife
A vegetable vendor, Dhannalal Saini in Jaipur was killed when he got a whiff of his wife's extramarital affair.
Saini's wife Gopali Devi was involved in a romantic relationship with a clothes shop worker, Deendayal.
She kept the affair a secret from her husband for five years.
When her husband got to know of it he confronted her after which Gopali and her lover Deendayal killed Saini.
The duo then stuffed his body into a bag and carried it on Deendayal's bike to dispose of it.
Later, they burnt his body.
Wife kills husband for government job
Deepak Kumar was living with his wife Shivani and held a railways job at Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh.
Deepak was an abusive husband and used to beat Shivani often.
Fed up with the daily beatings Shivani decided to eliminate Deepak.
She put sedatives in his drink, making him fall unconscious.
Shivani then strangled Deepak with her bare hands and killed him.
She told family members that Deepak died of a heart attack but the postmortem showed that he was murdered.
Shivani later admitted to her guilt and said that she expected to get Deepak's railways job after his death and wanted to live independently so she killed him.
Unhappy marriage
Two weeks into their marriage Pragati Yadav killed her husband Dilip on March 5, 2025, at Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh.
Pragati wanted to marry her boyfriend Anurag Yadav but her parents did not agree to the match.
After two weeks of marriage, Pragati hired a contract killer to bump off Dilip.
The two lovers hired one Ramaji Chaudhary to do the dirty job for them for Rs 2 lakhs.
Ramaji hired two more people and the trio killed Dilip.
They were later caught on CCTV by the police after which they picked up the lovers.
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