Police arrest woman for brother-in-law's murder

Suspect's husband identified the sickle used in the murder as one of her farming tools

HYDERABAD: A woman allegedly killed her 8-year-old brother-in-law by slitting his throat with a sickle over a domestic dispute in Mirpurkhas district on Saturday. The incident happened in village Dayo Kolhi near Mirpurkhas town.

Taluka police SHO Akbar Marri said that the boy's body was recovered from a sugarcane field. The boy's brothers told the police that they have no known enemies whom they can suspect of killing him. However, when the police began the investigation, it took them a few hours to trace the suspect.

"The sniffer dog led us from the place of the incident which was the room of Anita Kolhi [the suspect], from where we recovered the blood-soaked clothes which she was wearing at the time of murder," SHO Marri said. The sickle, which was recovered earlier, has been identified by Anita's husband as a farming tool that she uses.

Man murders brother-in-law, shoots wife

Police had initially detained six members of the Kolhi family, for interrogation, on Saturday. However, all of them except Anita were released on the request of the victim's father, Ramu Kolhi. Police lodged an FIR on Sunday, on Ramu's complaint, nominating Anita as accused under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Ramu told the police that a day before the murder, Anita had picked a fight with his slain son and in reaction, her husband, Jai Singh, had told her off. He claimed that Anita had threatened her husband that she would kill him and his brother.

Mirpurkhas SSP Javed Baloch said that Anita was arrested on Saturday. He said that though the father of the victim has nominated only his daughter-in-law in the case, the spectrum of police's investigation is much broader.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2019.