First, her sex chats were discovered and then her smartphone taken away, but nothing could keep the two lovers apart.
When the family began discussing selling off the house in northeast Delhi’s Gokalpuri in parts and moving to Dwarka, Monika allegedly hatched a plot with her lover to get her in-laws killed and make it look like a robbery.
How did a housewife with a five-year-old son behave like an astute criminal without the fear of any consequences. It was in the midst of the pandemic that Monika, confined to her house due to the lockdown, became active on social media again. She had barely had time for this since her marriage in 2016.
Monika had completed her graduation from Delhi University and used to work at a call centre in Noida before her marriage. Married at 22, four years of family life turned her into a lonely housewife. Social media gave her a chance to connect with the outside world and she began making friends online.
One of them was Ashish with whom she struck up a friendship online in August 2020. The two chatted frequently and soon developed a liking for each other. The chats gradually turned to sexting and finally they met at a hotel on Valentine’s Day in February 2021.
Such trysts in various hotels of Ghaziabad turned frequent. Soon, she visited Ashish’s mother as his girlfriend. Last year, however, the mother found out that Monika was married and had a kid. She objected to their relationship but the two were inseparable and wanted to be together for the rest of their lives.
Things took a turn when her husband, Ravi, stumbled on her sex chats with Ashish last year. “I felt stifled…It seemed as if I was in jail with every movement, every action monitored…They wanted to control my life, snuff my voice…I have no regrets,” a remorseless Monika allegedly told her interrogators.
She has allegedly claimed her mother-in-law, Veena, kept a close watch on her and there were frequent fights in the family due to this. Her movement was restricted, a fact confirmed by Ravi in his statement.
“The first jolt after the discovery of the chats came when Ravi and the in-laws allegedly took away her smartphone and gave her a feature phone,” said DCP (crime) Joy Tirkey. The chats stopped but meetings and calls between the two became frequent.
When the family decided to sell off the house and shift to Dwarka, Monika decided to take things into her own hand. “That was what prompted her to give final shape to her nefarious plans,” said a senior cop.
The in-laws were expecting to get around Rs 1.5-2 crore for their house and that’s what they needed to buy one in Dwarka. Since they couldn’t find one single buyer in the Bhagirathi Vihar locality, they decided to sell off the house in parts.
“The first deal – for the rear portion – got finalized on February 12 and the family took an advance of Rs 5 lakh. Monika then decided to execute her plan,” said DCP Tirkey.
Investigators claim that Monika had been toying with the idea of killing her in-laws and husband since December 2022 and she had shared it with Ashish. “After the deal on February 12, they started finalizing the plan. They met in a hotel on February 20 and gave the final touches to the plan,” added the DCP.