Jatin, who comes from a well-to-do family, and Geeta were married about five years back. They have two children -- a three-year-old girl and a three-month-old son.

Things were going just fine until, Jalandhar police claim, Jatin developed illicit relations with another girl.

Keen to cement his latest relationship, police said, Jatin decided to get rid of his wife.

District police chief Gurpreet Singh Bhullar told mediapersons that Jatin offered to pay Rs 200,000 to Manjit Kumar to kill Geeta.

As per the plan, Manjit was to abduct Geeta and murder her to make it appear like she was killed for ransom.

However, on Wednesday, Bhullar said the police received a tip-off about this plot. The informant said that Jatin would meet Manjit to pay some money as advance.