Gurgaon: Nearly six weeks after the decomposed body of a 22-year-old woman was found inside a locked bathroom in a private building in IMT Manesar, police have arrested her husband and his alleged first wife for murdering her before fleeing to Nepal. The accused, Ankit, 25, and Rajni Devi, 38, have been remanded in police custody for five days.The victim, Madhu, had married Ankit on Feb 19 this year and had been living with him in Manesar.On May 22 Madhu’s mother approached filed a complaint alleging she had gone missing a day earlier. In her complaint, she accused Ankit and his family of withholding information about Madhu’s whereabouts and expressed suspicion over their involvement in her disappearance. She said that when the family reached Ankit’s house to ask him where she could have gone, he left the house without providing a satisfactory answer. She also claimed he and his relatives repeatedly discouraged them from approaching the police, insisting that doing so would bring embarrassment to the family.Police initially registered a kidnapping case.Later that day, Madhu’s body was recovered from a locked bathroom above a bank on Kasan Khoh Road — later revesled to Rajni’s rented accommodation — after locals complained of a foul smell coming from the room. The body had a gunshot injury to the head, following which police added murder charges to the FIR.During the investigation, police found that Ankit runs a tobacco shop in Manesar while Rajni worked at a beauty parlour in the area. Police said the two had known each other for nearly three years and had also got married.According to a police officer, “Ankit took Madhu to Rajni’s room on May 21, where the two murdered her as part of a pre-planned conspiracy. Ankit procured the pistol used in the crime from Uttar Pradesh about two months before the murder.”Investigators said the motive behind the killing was Ankit’s relationship with Rajni. After the murder, the duo first fled to Haridwar and then to Nepal to evade arrest. “They returned to India on June 30 and were tracked down and arrested,” the officer added.Madhu’s family said Ankit had concealed his relationship with Rajni before his marriage to Madhu. They claimed they learnt about Rajni only after Madhu went missing and suspected that the affair was the reason behind the murder.The investigators are now questioning the accused to recover the murder weapon and collect further evidence. Police are also examining the role of others, if any, in helping the accused conceal the crime or evade arrest.
