Woman cop’s body found in car at Delhi’s Lodhi Road

It is the fifth murder reported in Delhi between Monday and Tuesday. Four of the murders were reported on Monday.

A 32-year-old Delhi Police woman constable was found shot to death in a car that was parked in a lane surrounded by government-allotted residential quarters in south Delhi’s Lodhi Colony early on Tuesday.

The body was found on the front passenger seat of a Maruti Ritz car owned by a colleague of the head constable, the police said. (HT File Photo)

The police are working on the theory that her husband, a head constable in the police force who has been missing since the murder took place sometime between 2 am and 9 am on Tuesday, had killed her over a marital discord.

The body was found on the front passenger seat of a Maruti Ritz car owned by a colleague of the head constable, the police said. The recovery of an empty bullet shell used in 9 mm pistols from the car has given the police a reason to believe that a police weapon was used to kill constable Renu Malik who was posted in outer-north district’s Covid cell.

Her husband Manoj, who uses one name, is attached with the special cell of Delhi Police and posted at its Lodhi Colony office.

Joint commissioner of police (southern range) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said a case of murder has been registered at the Lodhi Colony police station and the head constable is the prime suspect. “Multiple teams are conducting raids to nab him. The exact sequence of the incidents leading to the murder can be ascertained only when we question him. We have learnt that the couple was living separately for the last two-three years.”

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said that around 9 am, a local resident spotted the woman’s body in a Ritz car and informed the police.

Forensic experts inspected the crime scene. The investigating team later established that the car belonged to a head constable posted in the special cell. “He (the car owner) told us that at around 1.30 am, his colleague Manoj borrowed the car. Manoj turned out to be the dead constable’s husband, even as she used to claim herself unmarried,” an investigator said. The police raided Manoj’s home in Kotla Mubarakpur, but did not find him. Renu lived with her uncle in Burari. Her family members also suspected Manoj’s role in the murder, the officer said.