Pune (Maharashtra), Sep 16 (IANS): A fierce domestic quarrel between a Pune couple ended tragically with the husband driving off his home in a huff, sending his last location to his wife and then jumping into a river to his death, police said here on Monday.

The incident happened on Sunday morning when a dry snacks businessman Shrikant V Deshmukh and his wife allegedly had a bitter spat at their home in Dhankawadi.

In a seething rage after the altercation, Deshmukh grabbed his car keys and drove almost 75 kms to the outskirts of the city, in the Varandha Ghat region of Raigad district, which has been lashed by heavy rains in the past few days.

“At a remote, hilly location in the Varandha Ghat, he stopped the vehicle and sent his current location on his wife’s mobile with a terse message: ‘I am going to commit suicide’, before going incommunicado,” Bhor Police Station Incharge Police Inspector, Anna Pawar told IANS.

Panicking over the suicide threat, his wife immediately informed the local police which promptly relayed the location details to the Bhor Police Station and the latter got cracking in the matter, as the clock ticked away.

“We immediately formed a rescue party to trace Deshmukh and reached the location he had indicated to his wife, which was around 45 km from the police station. But he was not there, and after looking around, the search team walked for five more kms before they found his abandoned car,” Pawar said.

The police also summoned district officials and volunteers of the Bhoiraj Manda, to help in the search for Deshmukh and learnt that he had jumped from a small bridge into the raging river below.

The police launched a hunt downstream and after a couple of hours, they tracked Deshmukh’s body in the river meandering through the Varandha Ghats and launched an operation to retrieve it successfully, around 11 P.M. on Sunday night.

“Early today we brought the body to Bhor, sent it for an autopsy and handed it over to the family for the last rites later in the day,” said Pawar.

The police have registered an accidental death report and are making further investigations into the exact motives behind the suicide by Deshmukh who is survived by his wife and two minor daughters.

From preliminary questioning of the wife and others, Pawar said that the couple reportedly had a huge quarrel at home after which he stormed out, and went on his final drive before ending his life in Raigad district.