On Tuesday, the Ghaziabad Police received a PCR call at 7.30 am about an abandoned suitcase found on the Canal Road that connects Behta Hajipur and Banthla villages in Uttar Pradesh.
When police reached the spot, they found it was emitting a foul smell. They said the green bulging suitcase – with its zip about to break – was wrapped with bedsheets and pink polythene.
When police finally opened the suitcase, they found a woman’s body inside.
“First, we collected all the necessary evidence from the spot and then opened the suitcase. Inside, we found the body of a woman with vermilion and toe rings,” ACP, Ankur Vihar, Ghaziabad, Ajay Kumar Singh said.
By evening, the autopsy revealed that the woman was strangled to death, police said.
Forty-eight hours after the body was recovered, the woman’s father-in-law and two brothers-in-law were arrested in the murder case on Thursday, said police.
The woman has been identified as Kavita, 25.
According to police, her husband, Sagar, was unaware that Kavita was strangled to death by his brother, Sumit (22), as his father, Harveer Singh (52), held her legs. His youngest brother allegedly packed up the body in the suitcase.
Sagar told the police that he had thought his wife had gone to her parents’ house after “a fight” with his sister.
Sagar and his family have been living in a rented accommodation in the Shiv Vihar locality in Northeast Delhi for the last two years.
Police said it all started with an argument on the morning of June 7. Sumit allegedly saw Kavita fighting with his sister. It had become a usual sight, but it left him miffed every single time.
Two days later, on June 9, around 4 pm, Sumit allegedly saw Kavita beating his sister’s daughter, police said.
“In a fit of rage, Sumit grabbed Kavita by her neck and pushed her onto a bed. He then took a dupatta and strangled the victim with both his hands. His father, Harveer, also came and grabbed her feet. They stuffed her mouth with a bedsheet so that she wouldn’t make any noise,” DCP Rural (Ghaziabad) Surendra Nath Tiwari said.
After Kavita died, the father-son duo started thinking about disposing of her body, police said. They then called Sumit’s younger brother to help them.
“The three then put the body in a suitcase, but couldn’t close the zip all the way. They then wrapped a pink polythene around the bag and covered it with two bedsheets,” DCP Tiwari said.
Sumit and his brother then allegedly decided to dump the body in the dead of the night. Around 2,30 am on June 10, they set out on a bike to throw the body when it accidentally fell on the Canal Road near the Loni border, police said.
“Panicking, they left the body (in the suitcase) and returned to Shiv Vihar by 4 am on Tuesday,” DCP Tiwari said.
Once the police found the body, CCTV footage of the area was scanned. The footage showed two men on a bike passing by the area around 4 am on Tuesday, police said. The two-wheeler was traced.
On Thursday morning, police conducted a raid and arrested the three suspects. All three accused allegedly admitted to committing the crime. “We are still questioning the husband and other family members. Further investigation is underway,” DCP Tiwari said.