A Bhopal based young woman who had gone to visit Manali, was murdered by her friend in Hotel KD Villa in Manali, murder surfaced after her friend was trying to check out from the hotel with a huge bag.
The woman was identified as Sheetal Kaushal of Shahpura. The murder came to light when his friend Vinod Thakur started checking out from the hotel.
Himachal Police took the accused into custody within 24 hours on the basis of a yellow vegetable stain on his white shirt.
Sheetal (23), resident of Shahpura, lived with her parents. After working in a private company for a few days, she left the job. Father Kailash drives an auto rickshaw, while brother Rohit works in a tour operator agency.
Rohit said that Sheetal suddenly disappeared on the morning of May 5. When she was not found even after a lot of searching, they lodged a missing complaint at Shahpura police station.
Rohit alleged that Vinod was blackmailing Sheetal for money. Sheetal told that brother, something wrong has happened with her.
The deceased was a graduate from Nutan College, Bhopal. He became friends with the accused through social media. On May 5, at 11.30 am, she had left the house without informing. On May 8, the family members had lodged a report at Shahpura police station.
The family members allege that if the police had acted on time, their daughter could have been saved. In this case, Shahpura police station in-charge Raghunath Singh said that the family members of the deceased did not report her missing with the police.
The hotel staff did not have any document or photo of the young man's identity. The hotel staff said that he was wearing a white shirt while running away. There were black stripes on the shirt. There was also a yellow vegetable stain on the front of the shirt. We blocked the check posts of Manali, Kullu and other tourist places. During checking, he was caught in a bus near Jheedi village bordering Kullu district.
On Thursday, SP of Kullu district of Himachal, Dr. Karthikeyan Gokulchandran said that the deceased, a resident of Bhopal, had come for a visit on May 13. She was staying in the hotel located on Gompa Road, Manali in room number 302 with her friend Vinod Thakur, resident of Palwal, Haryana. The woman had left the house without informing.
Both of them had checked in on May 13. Both of them had gone to Sissu (hill station) for a walk on May 14. Both came back in the evening. After this they had dinner in the hotel room. On the evening of May 15 the young man ordered a taxi from the hotel manager to go to the bus stand. After some time the taxi arrived and Vinod started keeping the luggage in the taxi alone. When the hotel staff asked about the woman, he said that she had gone to Leh. During this time, the hotel staff felt that a bag was very heavy. When asked why the bag was heavy, the accused ran away from the spot.
When the police reached the spot and searched, the dead body of the woman was found there. Police arrested the accused from Bijora in Kullu on May 16. During initial interrogation, the accused said that the murder happened after a personal dispute.
Manali police said that the accused also used to go to Bhopal to meet the woman. There were long conversations between the two on mobile also. Vinod, who was arrested on the charges of murder of Sheetal, has made this disclosure during initial interrogation. Vinod also told during interrogation that he and Sheetal had already visited Kullu, Manali and other tourist places of Himachal Pradesh once before. Both of them came here for the second time on May 13. Police are verifying the statements of the accused.
Investigation has revealed that the CCTV cameras in the hotel where both of them were staying were faulty. Not only this, their proper entry into the hotel was also not recorded. The hotel management had completed the formalities only by taking the Aadhar card of the deceased, whereas the documents were not taken from the young man.
