Maha: Angry over excess salt in food, man kills wife; arrested

A man allegedly killed his 40-year-old wife at their residence in Bhayandar township in Maharashtra’s Thane district in a fit of rage as a food item made by her and served to him in breakfast was very salty, police said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday morning in Phatak Road locality in Bhayandar East, following which the police have arrested the accused, they said.

”The man, identified as Nilesh Ghagh, 46, strangulated his wife, Nirmala, to death around 9.30 am after having his breakfast. He was angry as the ‘khichadi’ (a food item made of rice and lentils) cooked by her and which she served to him in the breakfast contained too much of salt,” an official of the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar police commissionerate said. He killed her using a long piece of cloth, he said.

After being alerted, the police reached the spot and sent the woman’s body for post-mortem to a local government hospital, the official said, adding that the police were ascertaining if there was any other provocation for the attack.

An offence under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against the man at Navghar police station in Bhayandar.

A similar incident had occurred on Thursday in which a woman was shot dead allegedly by her father-in-law apparently after the latter got annoyed when the victim did not serve him breakfast along with tea. The 42-year-old woman, a resident of the Rabodi locality, suffered bullet injuries in her abdomen and died while undergoing treatment at a private hospital on Friday morning, police said.