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Body parts, severed head dumped near river bank in Delhi
One of the bags contained only the severed head, while the parts of the torso were stuffed in the other bag
Over a dozen highly decomposed, chopped body parts, supposedly of a woman aged between 35 to 40 years, were found in two polythene bags from dense bushes at Yamuna Khadar near Geeta Colony flyover in north Delhi on Wednesday, police said.
Police said the two black bags were found dumped in the area about 50-60 metres from each other. One of the bags contained only the severed head, while the parts of the torso were stuffed in the other bag, police added.
Both the bags were filled with substantial amounts of salt, possibly to ensure that the body decomposed quickly, officers aware of the matter said, adding that forensic tests show that the body parts were nearly five days’ old. “We suspect that each bag was filled with at least 2kg salt due to which the body parts were putrefying rapidly. The decaying process would have been faster had it not rained incessantly over the weekend. Some amount of salt was spilled around the spots where the bags were dumped,” said a senior police officer, who was present at the crime scene.
The grisly crime is yet another reminder of how unsafe the Capital remains for women despite several measures announced by the police and the administration in recent years. This needs urgent steps from both the government and society, to institute better attitudes towards women and ensure strict and consistent punishment in any case involving violence against women.
Police deployed drones to scan areas near the spot to look for more evidence, during a three-hour search operation, which will resume on Thursday. A big nylon bag was also found lying near one of the polythene bags, making police suspect that the killer may have used it to carry the two bags containing the body parts, the officer quoted above said.
A case of murder and destruction of evidence was registered against unidentified people at Kotwali police station, the officer added. A black t-shirt with the word “Love” printed on it and an empty liquor bottle were also found near the nylon bag, leading investigators to suspect that the killer may have consumed alcohol at the spot while or after dumping the body parts.
The recovery of the dismembered body parts is a reminder of the gruesome murder of 27-year-old Shraddha Walkar, who was allegedly strangled, chopped into pieces which were dumped by her 28-year-old live-in partner, Aaftab Poonawala in the city in May last year. The murder came to the fore in November. Poonawala was arrested in the case. In March this year, four decomposed parts of a human body, possibly of a woman, were found in a plastic bag near Sarai Kale Khan. Before that, in January, four parts of a man’s body were found at different places in Bhalswa Dairy. In June last year, 10 body parts of a 55-year-old person were found stuffed in gunny bags near Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital in east Delhi.
Wednesday’s recovery came to the fore after police received a call at around 9.15am by a gardener cum guard who spotted the bags near the Yamuna. Police rushed to the spot, where they first found the decomposed body parts in a bag but the head was missing. A search operation was carried out and another bag containing the head was found some distance away. “Prime facie, the deceased appeared to be between the age of 35 and 40 years. We are verifying the gender of the dead person,” said deputy police commissioner (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi.
Another officer said, “The body parts recovered suggest that the deceased is a woman.” Investigators suspect that the person was murdered somewhere else, and the body parts were dumped at Yamuna Khadar to mislead police. Investigators said they were scanning CCTV cameras near the spot. A list of people who went missing in Delhi-NCR over the past one week and beyond was being prepared, they added.
