A painter in Delhi committed a Drishyam-style murder and buried his wife’s body in a graveyard.

Mehrauli murder: CCTV video revealed the husband’s intention to make it look like his wife eloped with her boyfriend.

A 30-year-old woman was murdered by her husband in Delhi, who then buried her in a cemetery after suspecting her of having an affair. He tried to make it look like she had eloped with her lover, but CCTV footage exposed his plan. Delhi Police arrested him along with two of his associates.

According to police, he repeatedly gave her sleeping pills and weedicide, which made her seriously ill. Worried that his employer might find out, he brought her back home and continued to poison her.

Police said Shabab Ali, a 47-year-old painter from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, killed his wife Fatima in Mehrauli after accusing her of having an affair. During the investigation, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ankit Chauhan explained that Ali made Fatima drink pesticide and gave her intoxicating pills over five days.

Police arrested 47-year-old Ali on August 15. The next day, they also took his two friends—28-year-old Shahrukh Khan and 25-year-old Tanveer—into custody for allegedly helping him carry out the crime.

Police exhumed the woman’s body 11 days after she died. The couple has two children: an 11-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old boy.

DCP (South) Ankit Chauhan stated that on August 10, a woman filed a complaint reporting that her 30-year-old friend from T-Block, Mehrauli, had gone missing. She also suspected that her friend might have been wrongfully confined. Acting on the complaint, police registered a kidnapping case at the Mehrauli police station. Investigators said the woman last spoke to Rabab on July 27.

Investigators said Ali first brought his wife to the under-construction site where he worked and kept her there between July 27 and July 31.

Worried that his employer would discover what he had done, he mixed sleeping pills into her tea and, with help from his friends, took her back home by car. Later, he allegedly made her consume weedicide again, but she kept vomiting. Enraged, he reportedly beat her and eventually strangled her to death, according to police.

“The accused and his friends then broke open the graveyard’s gate and buried her.” “The spade used to dig the grave has been recovered,” an officer stated.

To avoid raising suspicion, Ali went to Amroha, turned on his wife’s phone, and messaged her friend — the one who had reported her missing — claiming that Rabab was marrying another man in her village. He then allegedly discarded the phone in Amroha, according to police.

DCP Chauhan said that during intense interrogation, Ali eventually confessed to killing his wife on August 2, driven by suspicions of infidelity. He admitted to giving her sleeping pills and weedicide over several days before carrying out the murder. Later that night, with help from his associates, he took her body to a graveyard in Chandan Hola and buried it there.

Police later obtained permission from the sub-divisional magistrate and exhumed the body in the presence of officers. They examined the remains and sent them for further analysis. The post-mortem report, according to police, also revealed a head injury.