Naming wives as prime suspects : The evil better half ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 26 2019 -

Does not stand at the opposing end of ‘Crime Against Women’ on the scale but definitely the implication of two women in the murder of their husbands is enough to make the hair stand.

Not a script taken from a seedy film about lust and extra-marital affairs ultimately leading to the murder of the husband for the police believe that this is what happened in the gory murder cases of Phijam Mohendro (46) of Takyel Kolom Leikai in Bishnupur district on April 21 and Khujamayum Arun (45) of Bamon Kampu Makha Leikai under Irilbung police station in Imphal East on April 23.

The two women are now in police custody, but lest anyone draws the conclusion, the two women are yet to be proven guilty and at best they are just suspects.

The alleged paramours of the two women are also in police custody and this is where the tale of deceit, of lies, lust and extra-marital affairs emerges and such a tale comes close to a hastily scripted tale of a B grade flick from any film industry of India.

This is what is sickening and frightening.

So a tale of deceit, lies and extra-marital affairs leading to the murder of the husbands and one may say that this is a case of real life imitating what is shown in the celluloid world and the idiot box.

What is chilling is the purported confession of one of the wives that a child born just recently is the child of her paramour and not her husband’s.

A story which reflects that the alleged illicit relationship has been going on for some time.

Keeping aside the question of whether the accused wives are guilty or not, it is disturbing to note that two men were found killed under mysterious circumstances just a few days apart.

Suspects so far and it stands that in any case of spousal death, the first suspect is usually the husband.

What makes the two stories stand out is the fact that the suspects this time are the wives and their alleged paramours and this is where one is reminded of the comparison drawn up with the celluloid world earlier in this commentary.

Modern day gold diggers or something worse, more dangerous ?

No definite answer yet but the very fact that the two wives have been named as prime suspects is disturbing.

Let the police build a strong case and let the matter proceed to its logical conclusion, but at the same time it should also stand that no one should take the law into their hand.

Already reports have come in that locals of one of the dead husbands have decided to expel one of the paramours from their locality.

The anger of the people is understandable but yet no one should take the law into their own hands.

There is the justice delivery mechanism to deliver justice and penalise those who had a hand in the murder of the two men.

It is also time to give a thought to the children of the two couples.

They have lost a father, and it would not make much sense to make them suffer more.

Society as a whole should have the cushion to provide the needed space for the young children to grow as normally as possible.

This is where the magnanimity of everyone concerned becomes important.