Man Kills Second Wife Six Months After Her Conversion-Nikah, Following Confrontation With First Wife

Five years ago, Pooja separated from her husband, an alcoholic, and rented a room next to her sister, Poonam.

Poonam, 32, is two years older than Pooja and lives with her husband, Vinod, and their children in the Vijay Nagar area of Ghaziabad district, western Uttar Pradesh.

Pooja had three children of her own, the youngest being a son less than a year old. Financial stability was her biggest concern as she needed to raise her children and pay rent. Previously a stay-at-home mother, Pooja sought work despite her limited education and found employment as a house help and cook in the neighbourhood.

She would leave her two younger children with Poonam and send her eldest child — a daughter — to school before leaving for work. About a year later, she found a job at a salon.

Poonam, while speaking to Swarajya, said that soon after joining the salon, Pooja began distancing herself from her. Whenever invited home, she would say she was very busy. Poonam and Vinod suspected Pooja was seeing a man.

The suspicion was confirmed by Pooja's eldest daughter, now 11, who told her aunt and uncle that a man named Alam indeed frequented their house.

Poonam learned that Alam was Muslim, as he often instructed the children to follow Islamic practices. Alam would tell the girls to cover their heads and instruct all three children to greet him with 'Salaam' whenever he entered the house and 'Allah Hafiz' whenever he left.

During a visit, Poonam noticed that Pooja had removed the murtis (idols) from her small temple and closed it. When Poonam found one hidden in a shoe rack, Pooja provided no explanation. “But I immediately understood,” says Poonam.

Although Pooja had reduced her contact with her sister to a minimum, an incident in mid-July rekindled their communication.

One afternoon, Poonam heard a commotion in Pooja’s house. Two women in burqas had come from Hapur, a town about 30 kilometers away, to confront Pooja. The women were Alam's first wife, Rana, and his mother. They accused Pooja of trapping Alam in a relationship, causing him to neglect his responsibilities towards Rana and their four children.

After they left, Pooja revealed to Poonam that she had married Alam six months ago in a nikah ceremony. However, the marriage brought her no joy, Pooja told her. Alam had become abusive and financially exploitative, often asking Pooja to give him her savings as he was facing a crisis.

Pooja told her sister that Alam had been caring and loving at the beginning of their relationship, telling her that in his religious community, it was considered a matter of duty and honour to marry a divorced woman to give her protection. However, he had changed over time, even physically assaulting her at times.

The sisters began reconnecting, but a week later, Pooja disappeared. On the morning of July 20, Alam called up Poonam, saying Pooja was missing. He said she was supposed to meet him at a Hapur hospital but never arrived. Concerned, Vinod and Sumit, the husband of another sister, joined Alam in the search for Pooja.

Sumit now feels foolish for trusting Alam. Police have arrested Alam for Pooja's murder, saying he killed her on the night of July 19-20.

According to Sumit, after the “fake search” for Pooja along the route from Vijay Nagar to Hapur on July 20-21, the family went to the Vijay Nagar police station on July 22 and formally registered their complaint, suspecting Alam of murdering her. They also named Alam’s wife, mother, brother Noor Alam, and friend Sadat as possible accomplices.

Based on Poonam’s complaint, the police booked the suspects under Section 140(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which pertains to kidnapping for murder or ransom (FIR number 549).

Three days ago, the Ghaziabad police released a press note about Alam's arrest. According to Alam's confession to the police, he killed Pooja during a car ride in Hapur and dumped her body in a lake.

Alam claimed that Pooja became very angry when he told her he was attending to his son, who was recuperating in a hospital. She reminded him that he never visited her when she was ill and said she would teach him a lesson after arriving in Hapur. In a fit of anger, Alam strangled her using her dupatta. However, Pooja's family doubts this story put forward by the police.

Sumit pointed out that CCTV footage shows Alam returning from the lake in seven minutes, insufficient time to dispose of a body. Sumit said, "Assuming he had already killed Pooja before the footage of his car was captured along the route, is it possible that he returned to the same spot in just seven minutes? Seven minutes is too short a time for anyone to dump a body in the lake and drive back."

When asked about the family's suspicions, Sumit said they believed the car drive was a ploy to mislead the police into thinking the murder was spontaneous and that Alam acted alone.

"We believe she was killed in a premeditated manner earlier in the day, her body was disposed of in a different location, and that all of Alam's family members were involved," he said.

The police have not yet recovered Pooja's body despite extensive searches in the lake. Sumit says the family fears that the case against Alam could fail in court if the body is never found.

Sumit recounts how he first saw Alam's picture on Pooja's phone during a family gathering two years ago — “We were checking pictures of a family get-together when a photograph of his popped up in Pooja’s phone gallery. When we asked her who he was, she told us he was the brother of a colleague at the salon. We left it at that,” he said.

Later, when the family learned that Pooja and Alam were in a relationship and that he was Muslim, they expressed their concerns to Pooja, warning her of a dire fate given high-profile cases of a similar nature. Sumit says the family told Pooja about the Shraddha Walker case. Now, their worst fears have come true.

Sumit says he met Alam for the first time during the search for Pooja. With Pooja gone, the family faces the challenge of raising her three children.

Pooja was the second of eight siblings — three sisters and five brothers — who were raised by various relatives after their parents died. Poonam and her younger sister have taken responsibility for the children, saying the brothers are too poor to bear it.

As Pooja belonged to a scheduled caste (Jatav), the family is eligible for Rs 9 lakh in compensation under the SC/ST Act. Sumit is working on opening a bank account in the children's names to receive the funds, he said.