Infidelity, betrayal and mariticide - a case report

Homicide is the most serious crime as old as civilization and reported as early as in the Bible.1 Killing of an individual is the highest level of aggression found in all the cultures. Since ages the very reason or motive for these killings has remained the same viz lust for money, women and land. To commit murder, two elements (Mens–rea which means preplanning or afore thought and Actusreus which means the actual execution) should work together to constitute the crime.2 Infidelity is a violation of a couple’s assumed or stated contract regarding emotional and/or sexual exclusivity.3 Other scholars define infidelity as a violation according to the subjective feeling that one’s partner has violated a set of rules or relationship norms. This violation results in feelings of sexual jealousy and rivalry.4 Infidelity, contrary to what most people assume, is neither rare nor exclusively male behavior. There is currently debate in the field of evolutionary psychology whether an innate, evolved sex difference exists between men and women in response to an act of infidelity; this is often called a “sex difference”.5 Those that posit a sex difference exists state that men are 60% more likely to be disturbed by an act of sexual infidelity (having one’s partner engage in sexual relations with another), whereas women are 83% more likely to be disturbed by an act of emotional infidelity (having one’s partner fall in love with another).6 It is one of the most challenging and damaging emotional events in life. The more you trust and feel safe with someone, the more powerful and painful it feels when it happens. It can be debilitating and feel like emotional murder.7 We encountered a case of homicide in which wife betrayed her husband and murdered him with the help of his friends due to her extramarital affairs with husband’s friends. The case in itself isn’t unique but the changing trends in infidelity and loosening of social fabric in rural India is surely a newer phenomenon.