Gurugram: Woman’s body found in bed box, husband on the run

Police said the victim’s roommate discovered the body inside a bed box after searching for her in the adjacent apartment.

A 25-year-old man was booked for allegedly murdering a 23-year-old woman, a cousin he had married, and leaving her body in a bed box at his rented residence in a three-storey building at Bans Kusla in IMT Manesar, police said on Tuesday.

The victim’s family alleged the accused had been harassing her for the past four years and were unaware of the marriage. (Getty Images)

Police said the deceased and the suspect were from Hardoi in Rae Bareli of Uttar Pradesh and were maternal cousins. The woman was studying at an ITI in Hardoi and had been staying with two batchmates at a residential building in Bas Kunsla for the past three months, as they were undergoing training at a firm in Manesar.

Police said the suspect moved into an adjacent apartment around four days ago. “He is the prime suspect in the murder case as he is on the run and it was from his bed that the body was recovered,” a senior police official said.

The murder was discovered by one of the woman’s roommates when she heard her phone ring but was not answered. Later, upon returning to the room, she found the victim’s phone on silent mode and lying in the room.

She raised the alarm and the police were called in. The suspect is on the run.

Sandeep Turan, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said, “The murder is suspected to have taken place in the daytime when all the occupants in the building had left for work except the woman and her cousin.”

“She was strangled to death. The suspect put her head in a polythene bag and tied it around the neck to cause suffocation before putting the body in the bed box to hide the murder,” he said.

The woman’s sibling said that the suspect had been harassing the woman for the past four years, and did not know about their marriage.

On the sibling’s complaint, an FIR was registered against the suspect under Section 103(1) (murder) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at IMT Manesar police station on Tuesday. The body will be handed over to the family after autopsy on Wednesday, police said.