Two days after police recovered a decomposing body of a 35-year-old woman from a bed box at a flat in Shahdara, they arrested the deceased’s husband and his maternal uncle in connection with the matter.
According to police, Ashish Kumar and his uncle Ashok Khan — both in mid-40s — were apprehended on Sunday. Police had already held Vivekanand Mishra, a 64-year-old tuition teacher who owned the flat, and his accomplice Abhay Kumar Jha, 29, on Friday and Saturday.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Neha Yadav said the motive behind the murder was yet to be ascertained. “The murder seems to have happened in the heat of the moment,” the ADCP said.
Police said investigation suggest the woman, Anjali Kumar, was killed on March 23. Anjali was a resident of Ludhiana, Jha is from Supaul district in Bihar, and Mishra and Ashish are originally from the same district. All three accused knew each other for years, police said.
While Anjali would live in Ludhiana with her parents, police said Ashish lived with Mishra in Delhi. Mishra had been living alone since his separation with his wife. Investigators said they are also probing whether Mishra and the victim’s husband were involved in a personal dispute or were in a relationship.
On Friday evening, the police control room received a call from residents of DDA Flats at Satyam Enclave about foul smell emanating from an apartment.
“When our team reached the spot, the house was locked from outside and blood was coming out from the back door. When we opened the door and entered, a decomposed body of a lady was found kept in a bag which was wrapped in a blanket and kept in a bed box,” Yadav said.
Police said it looked like the accused allegedly strangled the woman to death. The bag was covered with other clothes, and incense sticks were found inside the room to mask the smell of the decomposing body. Investigators said neighbours told them Mishra had also bought multiple phenyl bottles and was acting “suspicious” for days.
Earlier last week, police said, Jha travelled to Ludhiana, and then he, along with Anjali, travelled to Delhi to Mishra’s apartment.
“We don’t know what happened but a fight broke out between the woman and her husband. She was killed on March 23. After the crime, Ashish and Jha both left the city on March 24-25,” an officer said, on condition of anonymity.
DCP (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said after Anjali’s body was discovered on Friday, Mishra was tracked down and was apprehended from Surajmal Park in Anand Vihar in the evening, following which he told police he committed the crime with Ashish and Jha.
“We found that Jha had returned to Delhi on a flight to help Mishra dispose of the body. When he learned about Mishra’s arrest, he tried to flee to Bihar. So we nabbed him from the Aligarh railway station,” the DCP said.
Police said that Mishra’s phone revealed that he was searching for methods to dispose of a body using chemicals. He was also searching for open manholes and open drains near his residence over the last few days, they added.
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