Police in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district have cracked a murder case that initially looked like it would go unsolved. Ida Dudve was killed on July 10 in the area under Chainpur police station, but for days nobody could say who was behind the attack or how it had happened, the kind of case investigators call a blind murder because there were no obvious clues or eyewitnesses. It was only after the victim's brother filed a police complaint and officers dug deeper into the case that the trail led back home, to the victim's own wife, Rumlibai.
Clues at the crime scene pointed to the wife
Khargone's Assistant Superintendent of Police (City) Bittu Sehgal said the case initially looked like the work of an outsider, largely because Rumlibai herself had told police that a stranger had attacked her husband. But as the investigation progressed, officers learned that the couple had been locked in frequent disputes. Evidence gathered from the crime scene, statements collected during questioning, and technical investigation all began to point toward Rumlibai. Once police pressed her with tougher questioning, she broke down and admitted to killing her husband.
Suspicion of an affair triggered the attack
During questioning, Rumlibai told police she had long suspected her husband of being involved with another woman. She said she feared he would abandon her and their nine children to marry that woman, and this fear had repeatedly sparked arguments between the couple. She told investigators that on the night of July 10, while her husband was fast asleep, she picked up an axe and struck him on the head, killing him.
She initially misled police to protect herself
After the killing, Rumlibai tried hard to throw police off her trail. She had claimed that an unknown attacker struck her husband in the dark. But contradictions between her account and the physical evidence at the scene deepened investigators' suspicion during the probe. When confronted again with firmer questioning, she finally told the truth. She said she had hidden the facts because she feared her in-laws might kill her if they learned what she had done.
Mother in jail, nine children now in relatives' care
The killing has torn the family apart. With the father dead and the mother now behind bars on murder charges, the couple's nine children have effectively been left without parents. Police said all the children are currently being looked after by the victim's elder brother and their grandmother. After the questioning was completed, Rumlibai was produced before a court, which sent her to judicial custody.
