Man throws children into canal and shoots wife dead ‘for refusing to have sex with him’

‘The bodies have not been recovered from the canal yet,’ say police

File image: The incidents of violence in the houses have increased drastically since the pandemic began (AFP via Getty Images)

A man in India’s eastern state of Bihar allegedly killed his wife after she refused to have sex with him and threw his three minor children into a canal, according to the police.

The police told local media that the man allegedly shot his wife on Wednesday in Basedi village near Muzaffarnagar town because she “refused to be physically intimate with him” for the past 15 days. He has been booked for murder.

“The bodies have not been recovered from the canal yet,” Deshraj Singh, the officer in charge of the Purkazi police station, was quoted by the Indian Express as saying.

Pappu Kumar, 37, reportedly escaped after killing his wife, 36, and children who were five, three, and 15 months of age. He was hiding in a forest area when the police caught him.

A Times of India report quoted a police official as saying: “After killing the wife, the accused was worried what would happen to his children, so he killed them too.”

Incidents of domestic violence have increased considerably in the last two years of pandemic. In India, according to official data, the National Commission for Women (NCW) registered an increase of 2.5 times in complaints related to domestic violence in April last year.

Incidents of domestic violence have also risen globally. According to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine and UN Women, when the pandemic began, incidents of domestic violence increased 300 per cent in Hubei, China, 25 per cent in Argentina, 30 per cent in Cyprus, 33 per cent in Singapore and 50 per cent in Brazil.