Mumbai: Cop, commuters overpower man who stabs wife

Shiva Sharma, who has been booked for attempt to murder; (right) Bishila Khatri at Sanjivani hospital in Virar. Pics/Hanif Patel;

A 32-year-old Delhi man, Shiva Sharma, attempted to kill his wife, Bishila Khatri, 27, with a kitchen knife at the chaotic Virar railway station on Wednesday morning. Fortunately, alert officegoers and a Railway Protection Force (RPF) head constable intervened in the nick of time.

Shiva, according to the police, was unemployed and would always pick fights with Bishila over money.

On Wednesday morning, Shiva tried to strangle Bishila with her dupatta and then took out a knife to stab her. Since it was a rush hour at the railway station, office-goers rescued the woman along with the help of an RPF head constable at Virar station.

Bishila Khatri at Sanjivani hospital in Virar after being attacked by her husband. Pics/Hanif Patel

Khatri got injured in the melee and both her hands started to bleed when she tried to snatch the sharp-edged weapon from her husband.

A brave RPF head constable Satyendra Sharma, along with the help of the public, overpowered the angry husband and rescued the woman who was bleeding on the FOB.

JP Meena, senior inspector, RPF, Virar, told mid-day that Bhishila's neck, hands and right eye were injured.

Virar railway station where the incident unfolded on Wednesday

After first aid at Virar station, the injured woman was rushed to Sanjivani hospital and her husband was handed over to the Government Railway Police, Vasai. "We have registered a case under Section 109 (attempt to murder) of BNS against the accused who will be produced before the court today. The woman is out of danger and has been recuperating at a hospital in Virar," said Inspector Bhagwan Babasaheb Dange from Vasai GRP.

Visit to police station

The incident took place just a day after the couple had approached the Virar police station to register complaints against each other. "But, the woman's cousin did not want to register a complaint and they left the police station," said an officer at Virar police station.

"The cousin told a constable that the couple would resolve their domestic issues and no complaint was made," said a senior officer at the Virar police station.

"The kitchen knife was procured by Shiva from Bishila's maternal uncle's house in Virar East. He had been living there for the past two to three months," said police officer.

Sources have told mid-day that the couple was not staying together due to differences.

"Shiva lives in Delhi and nearly three months ago, he had to come to take Bishila to the national capital. But she did not want to go with him. Bishila lives with her parents in Virar and her husband also started to live with her in Virar. Since he was unemployed, he depended on his wife and constantly asked her for money," said an officer from Virar police station.

"The couple got married a few years ago. They had been living together in Delhi but the woman fled from the national capital as her Shiva would always pick fights over petty issues and assault her. She left him around three/four months ago and reached Mumbai. She had been living with her mother and maternal uncle in Virar East," the officer added.

"So, the husband too came to Virar from Delhi and they had a verbal fight that snowballed into fisticuffs between them on the intervening nights of Monday and Tuesday. Both the parties had gone to Virar police station early Tuesday morning to register cross FIRs against each other. But no complaint was submitted at the police station," said an officer.

A source said that since the couple had fiercely fought over petty issues, the husband had left home and stayed on a footpath in Virar.

The woman is a housemaid in Goregaon and she was heading to catch a local train on Wednesday around 7 am. When she reached the Virar station premises, her husband, who was apparently waiting for her arrival, accosted her and the incident unfolded.

The woman is out of danger, said a staff member at Sanjivani hospital where a team of Virar police had also come to find out what exactly had happened between the couple on Tuesday morning.

The incident comes just a few days after a 20-year-old woman, Aarti Yadav, was brutally killed by her former boyfriend Rohit Yadav alias Rohit Pal, 29, with a 35-cm long industrial wrench in the middle of a road in Vasai last month.

July 2
Day couple approached Virar police station

7 am
Approx. time incident occurred on Wed.