New Delhi: A 44-year-old man allegedly strangled his 37-year-old wife to death before taking his own life at their home in central Delhi’s Anand Parbat on New Year’s Eve. The woman had sought help from her elder sister as an argument had escalated. When the sister reached the house, the man refused to open the door and claimed from inside that the wife was asleep.The deceased were identified as Jai Prakash and his wife Jyoti. Prakash worked as a factory helper, while Jyoti was a homemaker. Married in 2011, they had an eight-year-old son. The couple lived in Nai Basti with Prakash’s younger brother Sonu, Sonu’s wife Aarti, and their three-year-old daughter. Relatives said Prakash had been suffering from depression for the past 13 years and had earlier attempted suicide.Police said they got a PCR call around 5.26 pm on Wednesday at Anand Parbat police station. When officers reached Gali no 17 in Nai Basti, they found the room locked from inside. When the cops cut open the door, they found Jyoti dead on the floor. Prakash too had died by suicide.By Thursday morning, the narrow lanes of Anand Parbat were crowded with grieving relatives. Jyoti’s father Ramchand sat silently in a corner, tears rolling down his face, while her mother Shyamvati cried out her daughter’s name outside the house. Jyoti’s brother Parveen (30) showed a photograph of his sister, recounting how Prakash had tried to die by suicide about two months ago.Relatives said that on the day she was allegedly killed, Jyoti had argued with Prakash over his worsening condition since he had stopped taking his medicines and had not slept for days. They said Jyoti had noticed the same pattern in the days leading up to his earlier suicide attempt and was worried.Just a few steps away from the house, amid the spice markets and confectionery shops of Nai Basti, lives Jyoti’s maternal cousin Chawli (48), someone Jyoti often confided in. As the argument escalated, Jyoti called her up. Chawli said she rushed to the house around 4 pm, but Prakash did not open the door, responding from inside that Jyoti was asleep. “I told him I would come back in a bit,” she said.When Chawli returned around 5 pm, this time accompanied by Jyoti’s other brother, Kapil, there was still no response from inside. After repeated attempts to get a response from inside the house failed, they alerted police. Their eight-year-old son was not at home at the time. He had gone to celebrate the New Year at his tuition teacher’s house. “Jyoti was my younger sister. I wanted to protect her,” Chawli said, “Now there is no one left to take care of her child.”One floor above the room where the couple lived, Prakash’s sister-in-law Aarti (31) was asleep with her daughter. Clutching the child in her arms, she said she was terrified by what had happened. “I saw them in the morning and everything seemed normal. I didn’t hear any shouting,” she said.Relatives also said that Prakash’s elder brother had been mentally unwell and had died of an illness two years ago. The family urged that anyone struggling with mental health issues should seek help before it leads to irreversible loss for them and their loved ones.A case has been registered under Section 103 (murder) of the BNS.
