For 22 years, Munna Lal believed his marriage was intact. He had three children with his wife, worked as a property dealer, and by all outward appearances, led a stable, financially comfortable life in Sangam Vihar. What he didn’t know was that his wife had been planning his death for a price — and on the night of August 9, that plan was executed with a level of calculated brutality that has left even seasoned investigators stunned.

The 55-year-old was found lying in a pool of blood on Ratiya Marg in the early hours of August 10, after police received a PCR call around 5 am reporting an injured man on the road. He was rushed to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where he was declared dead. What police initially treated as a violent street crime would, within hours, unravel into one of Delhi’s most chilling cases of domestic betrayal in recent memory.

Investigators noticed the inconsistencies almost immediately. The “burglary” scene didn’t add up — articles inside the house had been deliberately strewn about, and there were visible signs that someone had attempted to clean blood off the floor, an odd detail for a robbery gone wrong. Then came the piece of evidence that shattered Nazia’s version entirely: CCTV footage from cameras installed outside the house showed a masked man entering the property at 1:45 am and leaving nearly an hour and a half later, at 3:15 am — a window of time that made no sense for a simple burglary, but made perfect sense for something far more premeditated.

Confronted with the footage and the physical inconsistencies at the crime scene, Nazia’s carefully constructed story collapsed. According to DCP (South) Anant Mittal, “the moment we questioned her more, the woman broke down and confessed the entire case.” What followed was a confession that peeled back the layers of a murder plot involving her lover, his associate, a sedative-laced glass of water, and a payment of Rs 5 lakh that was never fully delivered.

The method was disturbingly methodical. Chaman allegedly supplied Nazia with sedatives, which she mixed into water and gave to her husband before the attack, ensuring he would be incapacitated and unable to resist. Once he was asleep, Chaman and Kishan entered the house — timed for a night when the couple’s son, who normally never left his father alone, happened to be away participating in the Kanwar Yatra. With Munna Lal defenceless, the two men allegedly strangled him with a rope, smothered him, and administered electric shocks. As if that wasn’t enough to guarantee the outcome, he was also beaten with a wooden stick to make absolutely certain he was dead.

After the murder, the trio allegedly staged the scene — cleaning up evidence, then deliberately ransacking the house again to make it look like a burglary had taken place, before the two men fled with the promised Rs 20,000 in hand.

Police say the motive traced back to long-simmering domestic and financial disputes. Despite Munna Lal being financially well-off through his property dealing business, Nazia had reportedly complained that he didn’t give her enough money, a grievance that police say fuelled repeated quarrels between the couple and, ultimately, curdled into a plot to have him killed.

Police have arrested both Nazia and Chaman in connection with the murder, while Kishan — who allegedly assisted in the crime and later helped shelter the accused — has been bound down. Investigators recovered Rs 15,000 in cash during the probe. Notably, none of the three accused had any prior criminal history. DCP Mittal said a detailed investigation to establish the complete sequence of events is still underway, as police work to determine exactly how long the affair and the murder plot had been in motion before that fateful night.