NRI booked for setting wife ablaze

KAPURTHALA (PUNJAB): A Non-Resident Indian (NRI) has been booked for murder in a village in this district the police said on Sunday. His wife was burnt to death.

The police are looking for Jaswinder Singh of a village near Bholath town. They say he is absconding after his wife's death on Saturday night.

Singh allegedly sprinkled kerosene oil on his wife and set her ablaze after an argument and a scuffle, the police said. She had demanded money from him, the police said.

The victim, in her dying declaration to a magistrate, said that her husband became infuriated when she demanded money from him and set her ablaze.

Singh, who had been living in Moscow for the last seven years, had returned to his village a fortnight ago after a gap of five years.

The couple had been married for over seven years and had a son.