Agra auto driver kills American wife, immolates self

TNN

Agra, 22 February 2014: An American woman married to a local auto-rickshaw driver in Agra just six months ago after a whirlwind romance right out of a Bollywood film was stabbed to death by her jealous husband who then set himself ablaze. 

 

Erin Michael Willinger, 34, from Chester, Pennsylvania, had tied the knot with Bunty Sharma in September 2013 and was working with an NGO to promote tourism in Agra. She had met Sharma while on a trip with her friends to see the Taj Mahal. 

 

Police said that on Thursday evening an enraged Sharma, 32, who thought Erin was having an affair with someone else, first killed her and then threw away her body near the busy Thakkar Road. He went to his Sanjay Nagar home after that and immolated himself. He died on the spot.

The family of Erin, who had changed her name to Kiran Sharma, has been notified by the Sadar police. The American embassy has also been informed about the incident. 

 

Sources in the police said that the couple had been going through a rough phase of late and had even approached the family counselling cell of the department. They said that Sharma was angry Erin had hidden from him the fact that she had been married once earlier. Erin, in turn, charged him with domestic violence. 

 

Ram Suresh Yadav, additional SP, said, "As both of them were from different societies, the marriage was already a mismatch. The postmortem of the bodies were conducted on Thursday night and both the Union home ministry and the American embassy in New Delhi have been alerted."