Suspecting infidelity, man chases and attacks wife

Doubting his wife’s character, a young man chased and attacked her with a sword on Tuesday morning, but the gritty woman offered resistance before he fled the scene as she and her sister screamed for help.

Babu, 22, suddenly emerged from the bushes brandishing a sword near the Kalpalli railway crossing in Baiyyappanahalli, as his wife Deepa, 21, was crossing the track.

Her sister Radhika was just ahead. “He chased her down and attacked her with the sword. But Deepa quickly raised her right arm in defence and suffered a deep gash on it.
“As we screamed for help, Babu threw the sword into the bushes and ran away,” Radhika said. “Had we not resisted, he would have killed my sister today.”

The sisters, both maids, were on their way to work when Babu attacked his wife.
Deepa had eloped with Babu, an autorickshaw driver from her locality, and married him five years ago. But marital discord cropped up later as he suspected her of cheating on him. Babu became an alcoholic and began harassing Deepa, her father Venkataramanappa alleged.

According to Radhika, so “unbearable” was the harassment that Deepa tried to commit
suicide two weeks ago but was saved in the nick of time. Deepa had forced her children, Parvathi and Bharath, out of the house, and locked herself in. Alert neighbours noticed it and rushed to her rescue. But Babu did not mend his ways and Deepa, along with the children, left for her parents’ house in Gajendra Nagar two days later.

A furious Babu then approached the police who mediated between the families. Accordingly, the couple were slated to separate. Babu even took away Deepa’s mangalsutra and other jewellery.

Things came to a head on Monday night when Babu, along with his friends, went to his in-laws house and demanded that Deepa come back to him. “When we refused, he said he would not leave her as she would continue with the affair. But Deepa refused to even meet him. Then he threatened to kill her if she ever crossed the railway track,” Radhika recounted.

The family did not take the threat seriously but Babu showed what he meant, she alleged.

Deepa is being treated at the Bowring Hospital for the deep wound on the right upper arm. She also fractured her bone and underwent surgery, a hospital source said.
Police have launched a manhunt for Babu.