An Uzbek national Shakhnoza Shukurova (25), who went missing from South Extension area around seven weeks ago, was later found murdered and a 30-year-old man has been arrested in this connection, police said on Monday.
The other accused in the case, identified as another Uzbek woman, who was a close associate of the 28-year-old victim, is still at large, said a senior official. The man, arrested on Sunday from his residence at Kailash Colony in South-East Delhi, has been identified as Gagan alias Gurvinder.
He allegedly misled police for weeks after he was questioned for the first time, said Joint Commissioner of Police (South-East range) RS Krishnia.
Gagan and the accused woman, so far identified as one Naaz, allegedly abducted the Uzbek woman on September 24 and strangled her to death in a car. They drove the vehicle to a village in the outskirts of Samalkha town in Haryana’s Panipat district. There they allegedly dumped the body in an open field and set it on fire, said an official privy to the investigation.
Police said it is suspected to be case of personal rivalry, but did not disclose further details about the motive behind the alleged murder.
The woman, who was living on a tourist visa, was residing at a house rented by a friend at South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area. Initially her friends and relatives assumed that she must have left for somewhere without informing.
But when she could not be reached for more than 24 hours and later when her phone was found switched off, the matter was reported to police on October 26 and a missing complaint was registered, said a senior police official.
In a few days, her mother — who claimed that she was talking to her daughter over phone when she was abducted — reported the matter to police and a case of abduction was registered, said the official.
According to police, they first traced the driver of a cab, which the woman had boarded from outside a hotel at central Delhi’s Paharganj area. The driver told police that he dropped her at South Extension, where another car was waiting for her.
The driver also claimed to have seen one of the occupants in the car waiting for the woman, leading police to Gagan. The Delhi Police has also not given a clean cheat to the driver and a dedicated team of South district are looking for Naaz.
The motive will be clear only after Naaz is interrogated, said the senior official.
Gagan has been arrested under relevant Sections of CrPC and he is expected to be taken by the Haryana Police on Tuesday, as the murder case against him is registered there, said the official.