Two cases of marital discord — one leading to a murder and the other an attempted killing this month — have put sharp focus on cracks in the institution of marriage.

On June 12, five persons were picked up by a police patrol from Magistrate Colony under the jurisdiction of Rajiv Nagar police station. During interrogation, they confessed that they were trying to get into the house of Dr Sarita Sinha to kill her. They had allegedly been engaged by Sarita’s Delhi-based husband Sanjay Kumar Sinha, a Supreme Court lawyer. Sarita claims that he has been having an extra-marital affair since 2007. They had married in 1997 and have two children.

Atul Krishna, the son of former minister Motilal Kanan, was on his way home to Hajipur in Vaishali district, only 25km north of Patna, when two motorbike-borne criminals shot him on June 8. There was widespread protest in the area and Krishna’s family alleged that his political rivals had bumped him off. But on June 11, the police revealed that his wife Shalini had plotted his murder and paid Rs 40,000 to four criminals to kill him. She, too, was having an extramarital affair.

Incidents of people paying supari to get someone bumped off are not new (see graphic). But of late, the trend is also noticed among couples and not always because of an extra-marital affair.

Police, counselling agencies and experts in Patna claimed that there has been a sharp rise in the number of cases of marital discord in the city. “More than 80 per cent of the cases that we deal with concern problems between married couples,” said Shalini, a counsellor with the Women’s Helpline.

She said: “The reasons for the tiffs are plenty: ego clashes, wives accusing their husbands and in-laws of torturing them for dowry, etc. We try to counsel the couples out of their problems.”

Describing a typical case of marital dissonance, Shalini said: “Often a small fight is blown out of proportion. Couples don’t speak with each other and sort things out and the matters come before us.”

Psychologists claim that lack of communication is the root of most problems and leads to unnecessary complications. “The problem with most couples these days is that they don’t discuss things among themselves,” said Sujit Kumar, a city-based psychologist.

Often, the collateral damage of the conflict between husbands and wives are the children. For instance, in the Sarita Sinha case, her husband, Sanjay, has allegedly taken away their son. “She came to us last week and complained that she had no clue about the whereabouts of their son. We shall request the court for an arrest warrant to take Sanjay into custody,” said senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaj.