MEERUT: A 28-year-old taxi driver from Saharanpur has been arrested by Haryana Police for allegedly murdering his 33-year-old live-in partner, whose headless body was found in the Kalesar forest of Yamuna Nagar district a week earlier. Police said the motive was the woman's persistent pressure on him to marry her.
According to investigators, Mohd Bilal from Tidoli village and Uma Singh, a resident of Ramzanpura, had been living together for nearly two years in a rented room in Defence Colony, Saharanpur. They introduced themselves to neighbours as "husband and wife". On the night of Dec 6, Bilal allegedly took Uma to a secluded spot near the Lal Dhang Gorge in Haryana and strangled her with a car seatbelt. To conceal her identity, police said he severed her head, dumped the body near the Bahadura poplar tree nursery and disposed of the head and her clothes separately in the forest.
Bilal was arrested from his home on Saturday night, a day before his scheduled marriage to another woman. An FIR has been filed against him under BNS sections 103 (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence).
Yamuna Nagar SP Kamaldeep Goyal said the discovery of a headless body on Dec 7 posed a major challenge for investigators. "The biggest hurdle was identifying the victim. There was a clear attempt to erase her identity by beheading the body and abandoning it in a jungle after removing her clothes," he said.
To establish her identity, police circulated details of the case across towns in Haryana and border districts of neighbouring states, including UP, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. However, no missing person report matching the description was found. Investigators later traced Bilal through CCTV footage of his UP-registered car at the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana, along with an analysis of mobile phone location data.
"After his arrest, he led us to the spot where he claimed to have disposed of the severed head, but it could not be recovered. Efforts to trace the body part and the clothes are ongoing," the SP added.
Uma had separated from her disabled husband, a painter, following frequent disputes. "We married 15 years ago and have a 13-year-old son who lives with me. She divorced me two years ago and would visit occasionally to meet our son. I had no idea who she was living with," her former husband, Johny Singh, said on Monday.
Bilal's family said they were unaware of the relationship. "We never knew he was involved in a relationship with a married woman. This has come as a complete shock to us," a relative said.
Get an chance to win ₹5000 Amazon Voucher by taking part in India's Biggest Habit Index! Take the survey here
Sandeep Rai is a veteran journalist with two decades of experienc...
Read MoreSandeep Rai is a veteran journalist with two decades of experience in the reporting field. He heads the Western Uttar Pradesh bureau, managing Meerut, Bareilly & Agra circles. His areas of interest are wildlife, politics and special reportage.
Read LessExpand
Start a Conversation
Post comment