New Delhi: A man allegedly murdered a woman he was in a relationship with at his flat in east Delhi. He then packed her body in a suitcase, drove around Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before dumping it in Hapur district in the neighbouring state. Police inquiries revealed that the murder motive was a dispute over money and suspicions about infidelity.Neelesh, 23, who lived in Trilokpuri in east Delhi was reported missing on May 28 after she left home around 12.30pm, stating she was going to the bank. Her father, Ahivaran Singh, filed a missing person report at Mayur Vihar police station at 6pm that evening. Her phone was last active at 2pm, after which it was switched off.On May 30, a decomposed body was found stuffed in a suitcase in the Pilkhuwa area of Hapur. A murder case was registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita with the additional charge of causing evidence to disappear. After being informed by UP Police of the body, Delhi Police personnel accompanied Singh and his son to Pilkhuwa, where they identified the body.The investigating team arrested Satendra Yadav, 29, a native of Chitrakoot and currently residing in West Vinod Nagar, east Delhi. He was arrested on June 5 near the Sikheda canal bridge in Hapur, close to where the suitcase had been dumped. Yadav was employed at a construction firm in Gurgaon. Police recovered several items from his possession, including Neelesh’s bank passbook, cheques, KYC documents, her Aadhaar and PAN cards and the black TUV car used in the crime.When interrogated, Yadav confessed to killing the woman, claiming that he and Neelesh were in a relationship since her hospitalisation for kidney treatment in Delhi. He said he met her family and introduced himself as a friend. In Oct last year, he moved to Patiala for a restaurant construction project and lived there for five months. He later became suspicious of Neelesh, suspecting she was involved romantically with someone else. “Every time I called her, the phone line was busy,” he alleged to the cops. “I loved her and supported her during her illness, but she kept taking advantage of me. I also tried to check her phone, but either it was locked or she didn’t allow me to go through it.”On May 28, Neelesh visited Yadav at his home. He had borrowed Rs 5.3 lakh from her, part of which he used to purchase the TUV. When she asked for Rs 2 lakh to be repaid, an argument escalated. In a fit of rage, he strangled her with a scarf. He stored her body in a blue suitcase, waited for night, turned off his phone and drove to Sikheda, where he dumped the suitcase near the canal. On the way, he destroyed her phone near Ghazipur.Police are investigating whether the money Neelesh gave to Yadav was meant for their wedding. The cops also recovered CCTV footage in which the suspect can be seen walking with a suitcase in hand.
