8 days after woman’s body found in bed box, 1 arrested

Police said the alleged killer, Satish Kumar, suspected her of cheating on him and killed her in a fit of rage during an altercation over the issue at his rented flat on September 23.

Eight days after the decomposed body of a 26-year-old woman was found stuffed in a bed box at a house in Delhi’s Qutub Vihar near Chhawla, police on Saturday said they arrested her friend for allegedly murdering her in a fit of rage.

Investigators said Kumar was arrested on Thursday from Dibrugarh in Assam, where he had reached after crossing four states and changing various modes of transport in a week. (HT Archives)

Police said the alleged killer, Satish Kumar, suspected her of cheating on him and killed her in a fit of rage during an altercation over the issue at his rented flat on September 23.

Kumar allegedly killed her after two attempts. She fell unconscious after Kumar allegedly throttled her and pressed her mouth. When she regained her consciousness, screamed and tried to escape, Kumar strangled and smothered her again. The murder was discovered two days later, police said.

Investigators said Kumar was arrested on Thursday from Dibrugarh in Assam, where he had reached after crossing four states and changing various modes of transport in a week.

After allegedly strangling his friend and stuffing her body in the bed box at his rented home in Qutub Vihar, Kumar borrowed his friend’s scooter and rode to Agra and then to Lucknow, covering nearly 600 kilometres, they said.

“Kumar parked the scooter at the Alambagh bus stand, boarded a bus and left for Gorakhpur. From Gorakhpur, he went to Muzaffarpur in Bihar and then to Siliguri in West Bengal. He then went to Moran in Assam and from there to Dibrugarh. He was caught in Dibrugarh when he was planning to leave for Shillong in Meghalaya and had booked a taxi for Rs 9,000,” said deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Santosh Kumar Meena said.

The suspect changed his locations frequently to avoid arrest.

The couple worked in a multinational company in Gurugram and were in a relationship since 2017, the year Satish Kumar had an arranged marriage with another woman chosen by his family, police said.

Originally from Jind in Haryana, Kumar has a daughter but left his family and started living in a rented home in Qutub Vihar for over a year, said a police officer associated with the probe.

A few weeks ago, the officer said, Kumar felt that the woman was close to some other person. The couple had arguments whenever Kumar confronted her about it. He was upset and suspected she had been ignoring him.

On September 23, the woman, who was living separately at a rented home in Khirki Extension in south Delhi, went to Kumar’s house to collect her laptop.

As she was getting frequent calls from someone, Kumar enquired about the caller and asked her to unlock her phone so that he could check the caller’s identity. An altercation ensued between them and during that, Kumar killed her, the DCP said.

“He covered the body with a blanket and closed the bed. He picked up his clothes, her cellphone and fled on the scooter. Kumar sold his cellphone for Rs 31,000 at a mobile shop in Dwarka, threw her phone in the bushes near Greater Kailash-1 and fled to Agra on the scooter. He removed the SIM card from his phone to avoid any trail,” the DCP said.

Police said the woman, who worked with a multinational company in Gurugram, was from Jharkhand. The murder came to light on September 25 when neighbours noticed a foul smell and reported the matter to the police.