A Pakistani national Hindu couple was found dead in their apartment in Mumbai, India, on Monday. According to Indian media, it’s a murder-suicide case in which the husband is believed to have stabbed his wife with a kitchen knife and then committed suicide. 

 

The wife reportedly sustained stab wounds on the neck, back and shoulder.

 

The husband has been identified as 45-year-old Sanjay Sachdeva, while the wife is 35-year-old Sapna Das.

 

Indian media cited a senior inspector of Kharghar police, Deepak Surve, as stating that last month, Sanjay was accused of assaulting his wife in front of their neighbours, but she chose not to file a complaint against him.

 

As per the details available so far, the younger of the couple's two children found the main door of the apartment locked from the inside when he returned from coaching class on Monday, whereas the other sibling was not at home. When no one responded for a long while, the child continued to knock, and he reached out to the neighbours for help, who entered the apartment through a common balcony. The couple was found “in a pool of blood".

 

The couple reportedly came to India last year, more than six months ago, along with their two children on a long-term visa.

 

The couple’s residential apartment was rented by Sapna's sister Sangeeta Makhija, who is an Indian citizen and was reportedly supporting the family financially. According to a senior police officer, the two were in the process of completing their paperwork and legal requirements needed to return home after the escalation between Pakistan and India last month, in May.

 

Makhija reached out to the police for help after last month's alleged assault, but they stated that they could not take effective action since Sapna declined to file a complaint.