Rampur (U.P.), 27 June 2025 — Police in Rampur have arrested a 28-year-old woman who has admitted to killing her husband by spiking his liquor with prescription sleeping pills during a domestic dispute on the night of 21 June.
Investigators say Vimlesh, a resident of Kanchanpur hamlet in Dhavani Buzurg village (Khajuria police-station limits), poured four crushed alprazolam tablets into a half-finished bottle of liquor belonging to her husband, Devkinandan (32). After consuming the drink, Devkinandan collapsed and later died at the scene.
“We have recovered an intact strip of alprazolam tablets hidden beneath clothes in the bedroom drawer,” Inspector-in-Charge Rajeev Kumar told reporters on Thursday. “The accused purchased the pills roughly ten days earlier and has now made a full confession.
Years of alleged abuse
According to police questioning, the six-year marriage had become volatile after Devkinandan—who earned a living as a daily-wage labourer—began drinking heavily. Vimlesh told officers she often endured physical assaults when her husband returned home intoxicated. On 21 June he allegedly arrived with chicken and alcohol from the Khajuria market; when he stepped outside briefly, she dissolved the sedatives in his liquor “so he would fall asleep without fighting,” she claimed. She said she did not intend to kill him.
Murder charge and court remand
A first-information report was lodged by Devkinandan’s elder brother, Gangaram, who had long witnessed the couple’s frequent quarrels. Police arrested Vimlesh at her home early Thursday and produced her in a local magistrates’ court, which remanded her to judicial custody. She faces charges under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (murder).
Child left parentless
The tragedy leaves the couple’s 2½-year-old son, Hitesh, effectively orphaned. With his father deceased and his mother behind bars, the toddler has been placed in the care of his paternal grandmother, Maldei. Neighbours expressed concern for the boy’s future welfare, noting that family members will need to arrange long-term guardianship and financial support.
Possible premeditation
Police are probing whether the killing was spur-of-the-moment or pre-planned. The fact that Vimlesh had asked her husband to buy the sedatives ten days earlier has raised suspicions that she may have contemplated the act in advance. Forensic tests on the liquor bottle and toxicology reports are pending.
