Kamal Singh arrested in India for wife’s murder inspired by HBO’s ‘The Staircase’

Kamal Singh, a 52‑year‑old man from Delhi, was arrested near Mathura railway station after police linked him to the murder of his wife, Komal Singh, aged 50. The killing stemmed from a long‑running property dispute in the Delhi suburb of Shahdara. Singh told investigators he had modeled the crime on the HBO series “The Staircase,” attempting to mislead authorities by planting a blood‑stained pair of scissors as a false weapon and concealing the actual murder weapon – a sword – in a bag before fleeing.

CCTV footage captured the couple’s children leaving the home, after which only Singh and his wife remained inside. The video also recorded the victim’s screams and Singh’s exit with the concealed weapon. Police noted that Singh had withdrawn roughly 700,000 rupees from his accounts shortly before the crime and attempted to escape first toward Nepal before diverting to Mathura. The multi‑state manhunt ended with his arrest, and investigators recovered the sword used in the murder.