New Delhi: The cousin of the 17-year-old girl, who was murdered in north Delhi’s Burari, had bought a suitcase a day earlier just to stuff her body and dump it. He allegedly took her to his friend’s shop, where he killed her, police said.The friend allegedly helped him get rid of the body, police have found.The investigation has revealed that the girl, from Bihar, was in a relationship with a man who lives in her home state and is a distant relative of hers. Police said the two were from the same caste and the girl’s family was opposed to the relationship.The family asked her cousin, Avinash, to bring her to Delhi in an attempt to separate her from her lover.Avinash, a labourer, brought the girl to Delhi on Aug 14 and kept her at her maternal grandmother’s house in Azadpur. The following day, he bought a suitcase and left it at his friend’s mechanic shop.On the day of the murder (Aug 16), he took the girl to the shop and told his friend that he had arrived early and would wait there with her before leaving for some work. The friend stepped out of the shop in the evening. At this time, Avinash allegedly strangled the girl. He placed the body inside the suitcase, transported it on his friend’s motorcycle and dumped it.Police said Avinash later told investigators that he informed his friend he had killed the girl and that the two then went to dump the body around 4 am Monday. However, the friend has told police he was unaware of the murder.“During interrogation, Avinash told us that he had seen her talking to someone on the phone and that she was in regular contact with the distant relative, which enraged him. He also claimed that she had eloped with the man in the past. This aspect is being verified. He believed she was bringing a bad name to his family,” a source said.Police arrested him Monday after an informer reported seeing a man riding a motorcycle with a suitcase and later returning without it. Avinash was apprehended and confessed to the killing.The girl’s body was found on a barren plot in Ajit Vihar, Burari, Monday night.Avinash has also been involved in two criminal cases, one for murder when he was a minor and another involving a robbery in 2025.
