Two persons have been arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a woman and her roommate in south Delhi last month.
The victims have been identified as Sonam (25) and Nayesha (23), natives of West Bengal and Nepal, respectively. Both worked as freelancers at various spas in the city, said R.P. Upadhyay, Joint CP (South-Eastern Range).
The first murder came to light on November 18, when a woman’s body, wrapped in a polythene sheet, was found outside a temple at Baba Gangnath Marg in Vasant Vihar.
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Even as the police struggled to identify the victim, a week later, a woman’s headless and fast decomposing body was found in a sewer in Munirka village. A designer tattoo of a chain and flowers was found on the rear lower portion of the body. Another tattoo of three stars engraved on the right hand wrist was also noticed.
Breakthrough
The breakthrough came on November 26, when a woman approached the police after reading news reports of the bodies being found. She identified the body as that of Sonam’s on the basis of the tattoos. The woman, who was Sonam’s friend, had been looking for her. The police checked Sonam’s call records to narrow down on a group of people who were in regular contact with her prior to her death. That, however, was not sufficient to crack the case.
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The police then reached her rented accommodation, which was around 500 metres from the spot where her body had been found. Upon questioning people in the neighbourhood, the police learnt that Nayesha also had been missing for several days. With the help of people known to her, the police identified the other body as that of Nayesha’s.
Thereafter, the investigators focused their attention on people known to the two women. They were identified as Jeevan, Govind and Arjun, all natives of Nepal.
The police said Govind and Arjun were in the business of earning commissions by helping people from Nepal and the northeast to bag jobs and accommodations in the Capital. The two lived together in Munirka with Jeevan, who served as a cook for them.
Police on the trail
When the police checked with the trio’s landowner, they learnt that they had been missing for the past few days. A forensic examination of their residence revealed blood-stained clothes and sofa, said the officer.
Subsequent probe revealed that Arjun also lived with his two children born to his wife who was no longer with him. A woman, Mini Sangma alias Neha— a native of Shillong— lived with Arjun and served as a “foster mother” to his children.
The first arrest was made in the form of Jeevan. He was nabbed from the Anand Vihar bus station on Friday when he was allegedly trying to board a bus in his bid to flee Delhi. At his instance, Neha was nabbed from a guest house in the city, said the police. The reasons for Sonam’s murder, as it emerged during the interrogation of the accused, were money and sexual jealousy. Nayesha was killed just to keep the first murder a secret, said the police.
The first of the two murders was committed in the intervening night of November 16 and 17. Sonam was struck on her head with a sharp object and then strangulated by Arjun and his two accomplices. The killers cut off Sonam’s head and dumped her body in a sewer through its manhole.
Another murder
The next morning, Nayesha began enquiring about Sonam on finding her missing. The killers then allegedly decided to eliminate her too. She was murdered and her body, wrapped in a plastic bag, was dumped on the roadside some distance from their home.
The police are yet to arrest Arjun and Govind. They are expected to guide the police to the spot where Sonam’s head was dumped. The police also went on to officially dismiss reports of the role of any serial killer in the murders of the four persons whose bodies were found over the past few weeks from south Delhi localities.