Indian-American woman arrested for plotting husband's murder

Houston: A 34-year-old Indian-American woman has been arrested in the US for allegedly trying to hire assailants to kill her husband.

Reena Ratilal Patel has been charged with criminal solicitation of capital murder.

According to an arrest affidavit, a resident at an apartment complex on Rutland Drive in North Austin called police last Wednesday and said an Indian woman was in the apartment complex trying to find someone to kill her husband, media reports said.

The informant told police that Reena came to her and said her husband had beaten her and she needed him to be "taken care of."

Another witness told police that the informant asked Reena, "Wait, do you mean beat him up?" She responded, "No, permanently."

Witnesses said, Reena also walked over to a group of teenagers and asked them the same thing. She allegedly offered them USD 4,000 to kill her husband and told them to hurry since her children would be home from school soon.

An anonymous witness says the wife told them her husband was abusive. "She showed bruises so I guess that's why we believed her," Kvue News quoted the witness as saying.

When police arrived, Reena told them that she had stopped to ask for directions. They brought her in for questioning, and she told them she was a dentist, police said.

She also told police that she and her husband have a loving marriage and denied any history of violence, the report said.

Officers then headed to Reena's house to talk to her husband, Biral Patel. He told officers that his wife had sent him a text message saying she had two more patients to see at work and he would have to pick up the kids from school. She also sent him a text message telling him to inform her when he left.

Biral said he called the office where his wife had told him she worked, and he was told that they had never heard of her before.

He mentioned that they had gotten into a fight the day before because he asked her where her paychecks were.

Police also contacted the Texas Board of Dental Examiners, and they said Reena has never applied or been granted a license to practice dentistry in Texas.

Reena's husband also told police that he had recently taken out a USD 2 million life insurance policy.

Reena is being held on a USD 1 million bond. A protective order has been placed on her husband and children. She has also been ordered to stay 200 feet away from the family's home and her husband.