A man hacked his sister to death with help of her husband in front of her two children aged 16 and 21 in Chanderlok Colony of Salem Tabri area here on Saturday morning, police said. They tried to strangulate the daughter too, but she raised the alarm and the killers fled, it is further learnt. A property dispute is said to be the motive, while police said that the victim’s husband also suspected her of having an extra-marital affair.

Tasveer Kaur, 40, the victim, was involved in a property dispute over a 4-kanal plot in Sirsa, Haryana, with her brother Surjit Singh, co-accused in the murder, and a court had ruled in her favour, said inspector Dilbagh Singh, station house officer (SHO) of the Basti Jodhewal police station under whose jurisdiction the crime spot falls. He said Tasveer was also having strained relations with her husband Sukhwinder Singh, a lathe machine operator, who thus joined hands with her brother.

In the morning, they turned up at her house and allegedly started thrashing her. At that time her son Abhishek Singh and daughter Kirandeep Kaur were also present. Kirandeep told to police that her father held her mother down while her maternal uncle stabbed her mother repeatedly in her abdomen, chest, back and on the head with a sharp-edged weapon. When Kirandeep raised the alarm, the duo thrashed her, tried to strangulate her before fleeing.

The neighbours gathered and called an ambulance which did not turn up quickly enough, at which they rushed Tasveer to the hospital on their own, but she succumbed to the stab wounds, Kirandeep added. The SHO said the police launched a manhunt for the accused.