Youth kills stepmom, surrenders

PATNA: In a bizarre incident, one Raviraj Agrawal on Wednesday afternoon stabbed his stepmother to death in their flat in the heart of the city and arrived at this newspaper's office saying "arrest me" and offering to hand over the blood-stained knife with which he had committed the crime.
Cops on duty outside the TOI building took him into custody. He was later taken to the Kotwali police station.
The killing took place in flat no.204 at Saket Plaza on Jamal Road. After his biological mother Vibha Agrawal died in 2004, Raviraj said his father D K Agrawal, an LIC agent, clandestinely married Premlata Agarwal a few months ago. "She used to torture us __ me, my wife and my two elder brothers," Raviraj, in his early 30s like his stepmother, said.
So much so, he further told police, that his brothers left the house along with their wives. "I stayed back despite all the humiliations heaped on us," Raviraj, a graduate who runs a medicine shop on Exhibition Road here, said.
He said he had an affair with a girl before his marriage. "Though I went for arranged marriage with another girl under pressure from my father, he and my stepmother used to threaten me that they would spill the beans about my old affair if I along with my wife do not vacate the house," Raviraj said, recalling as early as three days ago, his stepmother asked him afresh to leave the house.
Police said Raviraj has so far not stated the immediate reason behind killing Premlata. "He said he reached his flat around 2 pm, showed a knife to his stepmother and told her `either you kill me or I will kill you' and then stabbed her," a police officer said.
When TOI reached Raviraj's flat, his wife Vinita was crying. "I don't know what happened and how," she said and added she was in the bathroom and when she came out, she saw "mummy's body lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood".
As the news spread, a large number of people gathered outside the apartment. Raviraj's father, who was away at work, also rushed back. He refuted the charges levelled by his son. "Premlata treated all my sons affectionately," the sexagenarian said.