Man held for killing live-in partner, stuffing her in a sack

Police solved the mystery behind the murder of an unidentified woman whose body was found in a sack of potatoes in Old Delhi’s Dariyaganj area on February 5. A man identified as Dhan Kumar Gurung (45) has been arrested in connection with the murder of the woman. 

The case was cracked when the body was sent for post-mortem after it was preserved for 72 hours after which the doctors discovered a SIM card stuffed inside the woman’s upper undergarments and traced the call last made to Gurung, her live-in partner who killed her assuming that she was having illicit relationships with several men.

On February 5 at around 12.45 am, locals found an unidentified body of a woman stuffed in a sack of potatoes on Parda Bagh footpath and informed the local police. The woman’s legs were bound with a rope and her neck was tied with a pink dupatta. Based on this, a murder case was registered. 

To establish the identity of the woman, police circulated her pictures on Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook and other media channels. Police even held meetings with North-Eastern community living in Delhi since the woman had features which indicated she was from a North-Eastern state. Around 4,000 posters were distributed around the city but efforts went in vain. A day after the body was found, a man living in Bokaro, Jharkhand called up the local police informing that the deceased woman looks like his cousin’s wife. However, that man claimed that his wife was well and alive.

Police then sent the body for post-mortem examination which eventually cracked the case. The doctors found a SIM card hidden in the woman’s undergarments. Through technical surveillance, police obtained the name of the woman on which the SIM card was issued. Going through her call records, police found she talked to a person named Dhan Kumar Gurung. Through his cell phone location, police traced him and apprehended him.

During interrogation, Gurung revealed that he was in a live-in relationship with the woman for the past four years and were living in Jyoti Nagar in Gurgaon. They both belonged to neighbouring villages in Darjeeling in West Bengal. For past few months, he was doubting her for having illicit affair with men.