WB highway murder: Jharkhand actor Riya Kumari's husband arrested

Howrah (WB): The husband of Jharkhand actor Riya Kumari was on Thursday arrested for allegedly murdering her, police said.

Riya Kumari, who goes by the screen name of Isha Aliya, was shot dead on National Highway 16 in West Bengal's Howrah district in the early hours of Wednesday when she was heading to Kolkata along with her husband Prakash Kumar and two-year-old daughter, they said. Prakash had told the police that she was killed by a group of robbers who attacked them when he stopped the car to relieve himself near Mahishrekha in Bagnan police station area.

Police said they arrested him after interrogation and on the basis of a complaint lodged by Riya Kumar's family on Wednesday night.

He has been booked under sections 302 (murder), 201 (giving false information), 498A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and various sections of the Arms Act, police said. A hunt is on for others involved in the case, they said.

Riya Kumari, a native of Hazaribag in Jharkhand, was a popular face in Nagpuri music videos on YouTube, besides acting in a few Nagpuri films. Known to be very soft-spoken in the film industry, she lived in Ranchi's Morabadi area.

The husband, who identified himself as a producer, told the police that a gang of three men attacked him around around 6 am, trying to rob his belongings. When his wife rushed to rescue him, they shot her and fled the spot immediately. He also told police that he took his wife to the vehicle and drove about 3 km in search of help. When he saw some people along the highway in Kulgachia-Pirtala, he narrated the incident to them.

These locals helped Kumar take his wife to the SCC Medical College and Hospital in Uluberia where doctors declared her brought dead, police said.