Hours after he murdered his wife on her b’day, Delhi Police constable kills self

3 min readNew DelhiJul 15, 2026 03:12 AM IST

For nearly 38 hours, Delhi Police searched for one of their own – a constable accused of gunning down his wife on the road on her birthday with his service revolver before disappearing. The search ended around 6 pm on Tuesday, not with an arrest, but with the discovery of his body in a park near their house in East Vinod Nagar. The constable had a gunshot wound to the head, and his service pistol lay beside him.

Police said no suicide note was recovered, and the mobile phones of constable Manish Bhati (32) – posted with the Anti-Auto Theft Squad (AATS) – and his wife Priyanka are still missing.

Sunday was the birthday of Priyanka, a schoolteacher. According to her relatives, she spent the day waiting for Manish to return home. Around 11 pm, she called her mother, worried that Manish had still not returned, said police.

The family members alleged that Manish arrived around midnight in an inebriated condition, and an argument followed. They claimed Priyanka suffered a head injury during the scuffle, said police.

In the early hours of Monday, Manish took her on his scooter to visit Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, said police. “Around 3 am, near Metro pillar 90 in East Vinod Nagar-Kalyanpuri area, he pulled out his service revolver and shot her in the chest before fleeing,” said an officer.

After the shooting, Manish drove away, while Priyanka was rushed to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital by a passerby, where she was declared dead on arrival.

For the next one-and-a-half days, Manish stayed off the radar by taking with him both their mobile phones and choosing routes with minimal CCTV surveillance, even as six police teams combed Delhi-NCR for him.

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Searches were conducted in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Faridabad and several locations in Haryana. The search ended on Tuesday evening.

DCP (East) Rajiv Kumar said Manish joined the force in 2022 and had served in the Special Cell before being posted to the AATS in East Delhi.

Priyanka’s family has alleged that she was being harassed for dowry since her marriage in 2023. They said she had approached the Women’s Cell with a complaint against her husband and his family, police said.

Neighbours, meanwhile, recalled the couple fighting. “Manish and Priyanka used to argue sometimes, but I never thought it would end like this,” said a neighbour.

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With Manish’s death, police have lost their only opportunity to question the prime suspect to establish the motive behind Priyanka’s killing. Police said they are examining all aspects of the case, including forensic evidence, call detail records, CCTV footage along the suspected route Manish took and statements from family members and friends.