Pregnant Jersey City chef dead in murder-suicide, cops say

A pregnant chef was beaten to death in Jersey City and left inside her apartment as part of a grisly murder-suicide, authorities said Tuesday. Garima Kothari’s body was found at 7:15 a.m. Sunday — at about the same time her husband’s body was found floating in the Hudson River near the Exchange Place PATH train station. Man Mohan Mall, 37, was pronounced dead 40 minutes after the discovery of his wife, 35, the Hudson County prosecutor’s office said in a statement Monday. Authorities have not revealed a possible motive for the vicious slaying of Kothari, who was five months pregnant. The couple owned Nukkad restaurant, a trendy Indian eatery in Jersey City’s waterfront Paulus Hook neighborhood. The restaurant describes its cuisine as “Indian Soul Food” on its website and promises a friendly atmosphere. The couple was forced to close the restaurant due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic but reopened several weeks later for delivery and pickup, according to Kothari’s Facebook page. “Yet another tough decision — Nukkad is up and running — even on Sunday’s now,” she wrote in an April 19 post. “Existence in silo (sic) is not possible,” she wrote, “hence I feel compelled to stay open & support my skeletal staff & be able to pay some fixed expenses (now that small biz fed loans have been lapped up by the Ruths & Shake shacks!! Kothari studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, a prominent culinary school founded in 1895, after making it into the top 15 on the “MasterChef India” TV competition in 2010, according to the school’s site.