35-year-old woman’s body found under bed in northeast Delhi
Police said that they suspect that her husband, who is absconding, murdered her. The body was discovered by her 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage
A day after a 35-year-old woman went missing, her body was found stuffed under a bed at her house in northeast Delhi’s Khajuri Khas area on Sunday evening, police officers aware of the case said, adding that they suspect that her husband, who is absconding, murdered her.
Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Joy Tirkey identified the woman as Draupadi Devi, and her husband, Sunil Kumar, is a mason by profession.
Tirkey said the body was discovered by Devi’s 15-year-old daughter and their landlord, who informed police immediately. “The woman’s body was found under the bed, face down. A dupatta was wrapped around her neck and she had a head injury,” the DCP said.
The girl was Devi’s daughter from a previous marriage, and Devi and Kumar had been living in the Khajuri Khas house for the last seven years, but have no children together, police said.
Giving details of the case, police said Devi’s daughter, a class 10 student, had lunch with her mother on Saturday and went to meet a friend. When she returned in the evening, she met Kumar, her stepfather, outside the house. “He was sitting outside with the door locked from outside. He told the girl that her mother had locked the house and went somewhere without informing her. He said he’ll go looking for her,” the DCP said, quoting the girl’s statement.
When the girl returned at night, the house was still locked, and when tried to call Kumar, his phone was switched off, so she went to a neighbour’s house. On Sunday evening, finding the house still locked, police said, she reached out to the landlord of the house for the spare keys as she needed her school uniform for Monday. The landlord then opened the door and the two found the body.
“Further inquiry from neighbours revealed that Devi and Kumar used to fight almost every day. Recently, Kumar started suspecting Devi of having an extramarital affair, which was primarily the reason of these fights,” Tirkey said.
The DCP said a murder case has been registered and teams have been formed to trace Kumar. A post mortem has been conducted, and prima facie, the doctors said that Devi died to strangulation, police said.
