In a shocking murder case, a woman in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, allegedly strangled a man while being intimate with him. She later told the police that the victim, Iqbal, had been blackmailing her into physical relations, leaving her with no way out. The 32-year-old was arrested two days after Iqbal’s body was discovered near his residence.
The woman, according to her statement to the police, said Iqbal was a Zari Zardosi artisan who used to visit houses in her village often. This is how they met and exchanged their phone numbers. They used to talk to each other frequently. Iqbal eventually invited her to his house, where she alleged he forced her into intimacy. When she threatened to tell her husband, Iqbal reportedly warned her that he had recorded their calls and would ruin her life.
“I have little children so I tolerated this. He blackmailed me to get intimate with him several times. I was fed up with this. On Wednesday, Iqbal had gone to take his wife to her parents’ place. I called him back and asked to meet,” she has said, according to the police statement.
Iqbal allegedly handed the woman two pills to sedate her husband. “Around 8 pm, I served tea to my husband. I had put the pills in his cup. Soon after, he went to sleep while browsing his phone. Around 11.40 pm, I spoke to Iqbal over the phone and he asked me to come over. He said he was alone at home,” she recounted.
She confessed that she had gone to the extent of breaking point because of Iqbal’s blackmail. “While going to his place, I thought that either I would die or I would kill him. We were talking to each other when he started getting intimate with me. I held his hands apart and sat on his chest. Then I kept one hand on his mouth and choked him with the other. Once I was convinced that he was dead, I dragged his body to the staircase and returned home. I was so upset with Iqbal. I had no other choice because I wanted to protect my family,” she said in her confession to the police.