: The 32-year-old Delhi resident, who took his own life after killing his wife’s friend at a hotel near Manali on Friday, had used two domestically-made pistols to commit the crime after the first shot developed a snag, police said on Saturday.

Rishab Saxena, a chartered accountant, shot dead his wife’s friend Ravleen Kaur Chawla, Sunny Sherawat, from Delhi’s Najafgarh region, at Himalayan Oak Hotel in Shuru village, 7 km from Manali, before shooting turn the gun on him early Friday morning. Ravleen, 30, is undergoing treatment at Manali Civil Hospital after her husband allegedly shot her in the arm in addition to assaulting her.

“Saxena first fired a domestically made pistol, but he developed a snag, so he used a different one. Three casings were recovered from room number 102 of the hotel,” police director Gurudev Sharma said, adding that the accused had arrived in Manali the day before the crime.

Saxena ran an accounting firm in Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, police said, adding that her body had been sent to Dr Lal Bahadur Shastri Medical College at Nerchowk in Mandi for an autopsy.

“Call records show that Saxena had not visited Manali for the past six months, although he had been in regular contact with Ravleen,” the SP said. In addition to his wife’s statement, the police recorded statements from the hotel manager and other staff.

“Saxena had an altercation with his wife as soon as she opened the door. Hotel staff said the two men argued in the hallway before re-entering the room,” he said, adding that statements by family members of Saxena and Sherawat were recorded.

Hotel staff notified police of the shootings at 6 a.m. The room was locked from the inside. Police entered the room from the balcony, where they found the bodies of the two men, one of whom was naked. The woman lay injured.

The Himalayan Oak Hotel was rented by Ravleen and her sister Ashneet Kaur, 24, six months ago. They had invited their friend Sherawat to dinner Thursday night and he stayed at their hotel.

Sherawat had also rented a hotel in the village of Prini near Manali.

“In CCTV footage from cameras installed on the property, the defendant is seen entering the hotel around 4 a.m. with a gun in his hand. He is seen checking the rooms one by one and later entering the room number 102,” the SP said.

An argument broke out when he found Ravleen and Sherawat together and shot them.