Bizarre yet spine-chilling murder! Bride’s ex-lover arrested for gifting ‘home-theatre bomb’ that killed groom in Chattisgarh

Raipur, April 5: The Chattisgarh police arresed a bride’s ex-lover for "a home-theatre bomb wedding gift" that exploded killed a groom and his brother in Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district.

 

Hemendra Maravi and his brother Rajkumar of Rengakhar village in Kabirdham were killed in blast while setting up home theatre, unaware that it was an IED. Apart from this, seven members of family, including 1.5-year-old, were injured. Police identified the suspect as 33-year-old Sarju Markam, who is married and has two children. He was held from MP’s Balaghat, around 100km away, on Tuesday.

 

Police said that Sarju was in a relationship with a 29-year-old woman and insisted that she become his second wife. Her family would have none of it and fixed her wedding with Hemendra, 30, who had no clue about this history, say police. Due to this, Sarju decided to take revenge so he bought a home-theatre system from an electronics shop, stuffed 2kg of explosives inside the speakers and rigged the IED to explode on electrical contact.

 

It is pertinent to mention that Markam used to work in the blasting department at a crusher plant in Indore.

 

With his detailed plan, he went to the wedding on March 31, presented the gift to a family member without being recognized, and quietly slipped out. However, the family opened the ‘gift’ three days later, on Monday, and were thrilled to see a home theatre although the package had no name or address.

 

 

It exploded as soon as they plugged it in. The groom was killed on the spot and his brother died in hospital. The explosion was so powerful that the ceiling was blown off and the walls of the room caved in.

 

However, before the police came to know about Sarju, there were allegations that the home theatre was a dowry gift but denied it and handed police a list of items they had gifted the couple. A home theatre wasn’t among them.

 

Initially, police were also suspecting hand of Maoists because explosives were involved and Kabirdham is an insurgency-affected area. But when investigators began digging into the couple’s past, they were told about a man who looked extremely disturbed ever since the woman’s wedding was fixed. He turned out to be Sarju, a bespectacled, unassuming man. Police tracked him down, and during interrogation, he admitted to rigging up the IED to take revenge, said police. He has been booked for murder and under the Explosives Act.