A 36-year-old man in the district headquarters of Ashok Nagar in Madhya Pradesh chopped off a hand of his wife after being suspicious of her character for talking on mobile phone and fled home with the severe hand, police said on Thursday.
The incident occurred on the intervening night of Wednesday-Thursday.
According to the police, the accused Kamal Ahirwar attacked his wife Mithilesh Bai (35) with an axe at around two am on Thursday and chopped off her right hand for talking on mobile phone.
The accused even tried to sever her leg with the axe, but his wife’s shrieks alerted their four children who chased him away.
The couple had married 16 years ago and have two sons and two daughters.
Later, the police reached the spot and started searching for the victim’s severed hand, but failed to retrieve it.
“The accused chopped off his wife’s hand and fled with the severed hand. We have launched a manhunt to arrest him”, in-charge of Dehat police station Ravi Pratap Chouhan said.
The woman had suffered a fracture in her left hand when she was 11 years old. The hand stopped functioning since then.
The woman who earned a living by working as domestic help in some homes is the only breadwinner in the family, police said.
A case has been registered under appropriate sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the accused, police said.
