Woman found in suitcase near Iffco Chowk was strangled to death: Gurugram Police

Meanwhile, police are investigating the identity of a suspect who dumped the suitcase in the bushes along the Delhi-Gurgaon Expresswaynear Iffco Chowk on Monday

The woman whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase near Iffco Chowk in Gurugram on Monday was strangled to death, police said on Tuesday, quoting the autopsy report.

Police at the crime scene near Iffco Chowk in Gurugram. (HT Photo)

Inspector Haresh Kumar, station house officer of Sector 18 police station, said, “There were injuries on her private parts too. Her body had a few burn marks probably caused by cigarette butts.”

Meanwhile, police are investigating the identity of a suspect who dumped the suitcase in the bushes along the Delhi-Gurgaon Expresswaynear Iffco Chowk on Monday, police said, adding they spotted him on footage from CCTV cameras in the area.

However, neither was the deceased woman, aged around 25 years, identified nor the suspect arrested till Tuesday evening, police said.

“The deceased woman’s photo has been circulated to all police stations. Teams are also gathering details of missing persons’ complaints for identification,” an investigator said, requesting anonymity.

Police said the body was recovered around 4pm on Monday after an autorickshaw driver spotted the suitcase and alerted the police. An FIR against unidentified suspects was registered under sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 302 (murder) at Section-18 police station on Monday night.

The investigator said there were at least 11 fixed CCTV and two PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras installed around Iffco Chowk to cover all kinds of movements.

“However, the exact place where the suitcase was dumped is a blind spot. It’s just beside a petrol pump on MG Road (between Old Gurgaon and NH-48),” he said, adding that in the footage, the suspect’s back was towards the lens of one of the cameras near the spot and he was seen dragging the suitcase on NH-48) towards the dumping spot.

Police said they scanned the old, damaged suitcase on Tuesday for any tag, bar code or logo but found nothing.

Kumar said the suspect(s) had divested the body of almost all her identifying markers. “They also used a sharp-edged object to remove a mark from her right hand,” he said.

He added there was a tattoo of ‘Om’ written in Hindi above her right arm---the lone identification mark the police have at present.

“Police are scanning footage from all CCTV cameras around the chowk to find the vehicle in which the suspect transported the body,” he said, adding there is no visible injury mark on the body.

Investigators suspect the woman was murdered within three hours of her body being dumped at the spot.