Mumbai, Dec 17 : An illicit affair with a relative drove a man to get his wife eliminated by making it look like a case of fatal stabbing during chain snatching while out on a morning walk.

The Mumbai police Thursday cracked the shocking case of the husband giving a contract to kill his wife.

The incident - which happened Oct 27 at Parel in central Mumbai - was initially investigated as a routine chain-snatching-cum-murder by the police.

The victim, Beena (39) was taking a morning walk along with her husband Jitendra Dedhia near Wadia Baug in Lalbaug Parel, a Shiv Sena bastion.

Around 5.45 a. m., two masked men came on a motorcycle and threatened them with a knife. They snatched his gold chain worth Rs. 10,000 and tried to grab Beena's gold earrings. When she resisted, they slit her throat and also injured Jitendra on his arms and fingers.

"Since Dedhia was the only eye witness, we questioned over 450 known chain-snatchers to get leads on the duo who had committed the crime. However, our investigations revealed that it was not a chain snatching incident but a carefully planned out murder plotted by Jitendra Dedhia," Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Rakesh Maria told a packed news conference Thursday evening.

Maria said the accused was having an affair with Beena's ?bhabhi' (her brother's wife) Rupal Chhedda since over a year. The Dedhia couple have a 10-year old son, who was at their home in Meghchhaya Apartments in Lalbaug-Parel.

Jitendra and Rupal have been arrested by the police along with the two motorcycle-borne assailants, Hasruddin Malik and Mohammed Nasim Khan. Besides them, police have nabbed 64-year old Rajnikant Wagh, who arranged for the contract killing worth Rs. 1 lakh and arranged Dedhia's meeting with the two killers.

Dedhia had demanded a divorce from Beena, and after she refused he decided to hatch a plot to eliminate her, Maria said.

Soon after the incident, Jitendra lodged a complaint with the Kalachowkie Police about how two motorcycle riding chain-snatchers had robbed them.

The news scared thousands of Mumbaikars who frequent roads, alleys, gardens, parks, beaches, the Aarey Milk Colony and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park for their morning walk. It even prompted the Shiv Sena to set up a squad to protect the morning walkers.

Besides the local police, the Crime Branch initiated a parallel probe to come up with the sensational revelation, Maria said.

The lid came off the crime following a tip-off that Malik had suddenly disappeared and was hiding in Uttar Pradesh after the incident. Police laid a trap to catch him and then he spilled the beans on the crime.

While Dedhia runs a grocery shop in Parel, Wagh owns a newspaper vending stall nearby. Malik runs a fruit juice centre and Khan drives a taxi.

Of the contract money, Wagh kept Rs. 40,000 while the killer duo got the reaming amount as their share.

Incidentally, the group which hatched the conspiracy to kill Beena on Oct 4, had earlier made three unsuccessful bids on her life.

"After Beena was stabbed by Khan, she tried to run away. Jitendra Dedhia called him and asked him to stab her till she died. He also asked Khan to attack him on the hand so that he could pretend he had retaliated and told them to even take away his cellphone," Maria said.

The accused will be presented before a magistrate for remand Friday, he added.

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner D. Shivanandhan Thursday evening announced a cash reward of Rs. 30,000 to the crime branch team led by officer Dinesh Ahir for cracking the sensational case.(IANS)