A half-burnt decomposed body of a 21-year-old Delhi University student was found from the house of her lover in northwest Delhi’s Gurmandi on Sunday morning.
Arzoo Singh Chauhan, who lived in the same neighbourhood, was killed allegedly by her lover, Naveen Khatri (23), on Tuesday. Khatri allegedly strangled her, set her body on fire and then hid her body for five days and married another woman during the period before the murder came to light on Sunday when her body was found in a shaft at his residence.
A senior police official said Chauhan had been missing since February 2. “On Saturday night, the police had called the accused for interrogation in connection with the missing DU student. During the interrogation, he broke down and confessed to his involvement in the murder of the deceased. At his instance, the body of the young woman was recovered from the shaft of his house. A murder case was immediately registered and the accused was arrested,” the police official said.
The official said that Chauhan was a final year student of Delhi University’s Lakshmibai College.
Khatri used to deal in real estate. A police source said that Chauhan had a relationship with him. Both wanted to get married, but Khatri’s family members were against the marriage. On February 2, Chauhan left her home for college at around 8 am, but did not return. When she did not return till late in the evening, her family searched her in nearby areas and inquired with their relatives but could not find her anywhere. Her mobile phone was also found switched off after 4 pm. “Her family then lodged a missing complaint with the police. The family of the deceased had told the police that Khatri could be behind her disappearance,” the source said.
Khatri’s parents had fixed his marriage with another woman and were forcing him to change his decision. Khatri also had an argument with the deceased over this issue, the source added.
The police also questioned Chauhan’s friends, who told the cops that she was last seen with Khatri who had taken her somewhere from her college on a motorcycle. “The accused told the police that he met the deceased on February 2 and took her to Nangal Devat village near Indira Gandhi International Airport where they again had a heated argument. The deceased was forcing him to marry her. This led to a fight between them and Khatri in a fit of rage strangled her to death with the help of a chunni. He later took her body to his house and tried to burn it. When he failed, he kept the body in the shaft of the house,” the police source said. The police source said that after committing the murder, Khatri got married to the woman his family had chosen for him.
“We are also suspecting the role of Khatri’s other family members in the murder. We are mulling arrest of other family members for helping Khatri in hiding the body of the deceased,” the police source added.
The deceased is survived by her parents, an elder sister and a younger brother. The source said that the Rajkumar Khatri, father of the accused, was recently awarded life imprisonment in connection with another murder case. Rajkumar Khatri had been released on parole by a court on the ground of the accused’s marriage.
