Rajasthan: Wife and lover convicted in IB officer's murder case, had given contract for Rs 3 lakh:

News Topical, Digital Desk : Rajasthan IB Officer Murder Case: A court in Jhalawar, Rajasthan convicted the wife of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer, a suspended policeman and others in the murder case and sentenced them to different periods of imprisonment.

The court sentenced the suspended Rajasthan Police personnel to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh, while the victim's wife and another convict were sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment each. The court acquitted another accused due to lack of evidence.

The body of Chetan Prakash Galav, posted as a senior technical officer at the Intelligence Bureau's New Delhi centre, was found at the Ralyata railway station in Jhalawar in February 2018.

The police had initially registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC (Investigation and report by police on suicide, etc.). However, after the officer's father filed a petition in the court suspecting it to be a murder, the police investigated the case and treated it as a case of murder.

The wife had given a contract of Rs 3 lakh to kill her husband

Police claimed that the deceased's wife, Anita Meena, a government school teacher by profession, along with her policeman and lover Praveen Rathore hatched the murder conspiracy and hired RTO agent Shahrukh Khan for Rs 3 lakh.

The trio, along with a private medical nurse Santosh Nirmal and another accused Farhan and a minor boy, hatched a plan to kill Galav. Public Prosecutor Deepesh Bhardwaj said that the court convicted Rathore (35) and Khan of conspiracy, kidnapping and murder under the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act and sentenced them to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.

He said that the court convicted Meena and Nirmal of conspiracy and murder and sentenced them to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment each. Dipesh Bhardwaj said that the court acquitted Farhan, while the minor's trial was held in the juvenile court. The mystery behind Galav's murder was revealed with the arrest of Khan four months after the murder. He allegedly kidnapped Galav from Jhalawar railway station with the help of two neighbors and injected him with a double dose of ketamine to kill him.