A day after a woman’s decomposed body was found in a box bed in a flat in Delhi’s Shahdara, police said they have cracked the case with the arrest of the house’s owner and one of his accomplices. 

Officials said they got a call on Friday informing them about a foul smell emanating from a flat in Satyam Enclave in Vivek Vihar. When a police team reached the spot, they found the house locked and blood marks near the back door. After opening the door, the decomposed body of a 35-year-old woman was found in a bag inside the storage area of a bed. 

A team formed to investigate the murder began looking for the owner of the house, 65-year-old Vivekanand Mishra. He was caught near Surajmal Park, Anand Vihar.

Officials said Mishra confessed to murdering the woman, Anju aka Anjali, who was from Ludhiana, and revealed the names of his two accomplices, Abhay Kumar Jha alias Sonu and Ashish Kumar.

After Mishra was arrested, Sonu, who had come to Delhi to dispose of the body and was staying in a hotel in Paharganj, tried to flee to Bihar. The police team found out he was travelling on the Magadh Express and arrested him at the Aligarh station with the help of the Government Railway Police (GRP).

Murder Plan

Interrogation and call details revealed that the plan to kill Anjali was hatched by Mishra and Sonu. On March 21, Sonu and the other accomplice, Ashish, brought Anjali from Ludhiana to Delhi, where she was murdered. 

Officials said Mishra searched online for methods of disposing of a body using chemicals. He had also looked for open manholes and drains of the Delhi Jal Board, indicating that the killers had already planned to destroy the evidence after the murder.

The police are now looking for the third accomplice, Ashish, and are trying to figure out the motive for the murder.