Body Found Stuffed In Mattress, Delhi Couple Arrested Months Later

A decomposed body with a tattoo reading "Amit-Kiran", found stuffed inside mattresses and blankets in a plastic sack outside a factory in west Delhi's Moti Nagar area in April, led police to unravel a killing allegedly triggered by a suspected illicit relationship, resulting in the arrest of the victim's brother and sister-in-law, an official said on Tuesday.

Accused Gopal (32) and his wife, Soma alias Seema (35), were arrested after a more-than-two-month probe that involved analysing footage collected from over 300 CCTV cameras, circulating more than 200 hue-and-cry notices and conducting raids across Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the official said.

The case came to light on April 4, when police received information about a suspicious white plastic sack lying outside a factory gate on Rama Road, near the Prem Nagar Fatak.

Upon inspection, police found a decomposed male body wrapped in two mattresses and two blankets in the sack. The victim's legs were tied with a mobile phone's charger cable, police said.

The body was sent for post-mortem, which revealed multiple bruises on the neck, a fractured hyoid bone and a blunt-force injury to the head. Doctors opined that the cause of death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation, associated with a head injury, and declared the death homicidal.

During the examination of the body, investigators noticed a tattoo that read "Amit-Kiran" on the victim's right arm after the removal of the decomposed skin layer. The tattoo became a crucial lead in the efforts to identify the man, police said.

A murder case was registered and investigators began probing the possibility that the victim was killed elsewhere, before his body was dumped at the spot.

A special team conducted extensive enquiries in labour colonies and slum clusters across several areas of Delhi-NCR and scrutinised footage collected from more than 300 CCTV cameras.

During the investigation, police identified an e-cart allegedly used to transport the body. The driver and two labourers who had shifted the mattresses and blankets were traced and questioned.

Their statements led investigators to a rented accommodation in Indrapuri, Loni, Ghaziabad. A forensic examination of the premises resulted in the seizure of blood-stained exhibits, police said.

Persistent investigation eventually established the identity of the man as Amit Kumar. Police later discovered that the rented accommodation was occupied by the man's brother, Gopal, and his wife, Soma.

According to investigators, the couple vacated the premises immediately after the incident and went into hiding. Technical surveillance, an analysis of the call detail records, IMEI tracking and a verification of relatives and associates helped police trace their movements.

Police arrested the couple on June 15 from near a railway line in Shiv Basti on Rama Road. During interrogation, the accused allegedly disclosed that disputes had arisen due to a suspected illicit relationship between the man and Soma, which led to tensions within the family. Police suspect that the alleged relationship was the motive behind the killing.

Gopal has been remanded in police custody for further interrogation and recovery of evidence, while Soma has been sent to judicial custody.

Further investigation is underway to establish the exact sequence of events and gather additional evidence in the case, police said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)