Rickshaw driver murders US wife, commits suicide
Print Edition
An Indian rickshaw driver stabbed his American wife to death before setting himself ablaze, police said yesterday, in a violent end to a whirlwind romance scripted in the backdrop of the Taj Mahal.
Bunty Sharma, 32, killed 35-year-old Arian Willingar from Pennsylvania on a deserted roadside in the tourist city of Agra after the couple had a fight late Thursday, senior police officer Shalabh Mathur said.
Sharma later committed suicide by setting himself on fire, Mathu said.
The couple first met when Willingar visited Agra last July with her friends to see the Taj Mahal, the world-famous monument of love.
Romance blossomed, and they married and began living together. However the couple soon had a falling out over suspicions of infidelity.
The rickshaw driver accused his wife “of smoking too much, talking to other men and not staying at home,” the Indian Express reported.
The US embassy in New Delhi refused to comment on the case but Mathur cited embassy officials as saying that they had informed the victim’s family of her death.
“We are preserving the body of the victim until further instructions from the embassy,” Mathur said.
The case grabbed headlines yesterday with local newspapers offering details of their Bollywood-style romance.
At the end of her July trip, Willingar stayed back in India as her friends returned home and married Sharma in a ceremony that was held on the rooftop of a hotel located in the backdrop of the Taj Mahal.
But the romance soon fizzled out and the couple began living separately in December, reports said.
The Times of India featured a black-and-white photograph of the couple on its front page, which showed Willingar dressed in the clothing of a traditional Indian bride.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
