Mohali: A local hotelier shot dead his wife following an argument at Phase X here on Wednesday morning. The couple was travelling in a car when following a heated exchange, 60-year-old Nirankar Singh Sarao fired at least six shots at his wife, Kulwant Kaur, 62, from point blank range, leaving her dead on the spot.

Nirankar has been arrested and the gun used in the crime has been recovered. Nirankar was undergoing heart treatment at the PGI, Chandigarh, for which he, along with his wife, had left his Hotel Sarao in Phase X, where they were staying, around 9.30 am. 

They left in the hotel manager's Tata Indigo car after leaving behind their own Mercedes with the manager for service. Neighbour Jasmeet Singh said the couple looked fine when they met him before leaving the hotel.

It was around a kilometre away that Nirankar stopped the car near a private school and following a heated argument, he fired from his .32-bore revolver, leaving his wife dead in a pool of blood. The body was sent to the civil hospital for post-mortem. 

A murder case has been registered against Nirankar at the Phase XI police station. The couple were having two children, both settled in the UK. This is the third murder in Mohali in less than a month after the brutal double murder of veteran journalist KJ Singh and his mother Gurcharan Kaur on September 23. No headway has been made in the double murder.