G Noida: Man, woman found hanging from fan
GREATER NOIDA: The bodies of a 21-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman were found in a rented apartment in Block 24 of Omicron 3 society of Greater Noida on Thursday morning. Police said both bodies were hanging from a single ceiling fan in the apartment, raising suspicions of foul play.
The dead were identified as Gaurav Dhama, 21, and his friend 24-year-old Preety Chipyana. While Dhama was a native of Pawla village in Baghpat district, Preeti was married to Pradeep and lived in Sunpura village under Ecotech 3 area of Greater Noida. The couple has two children.
Dhama had moved to Greater Noida about two months ago after completing his Bcom from a private college in Baghpat. Dhama had got married to a woman named Chanchal (single name) in July 13, but the couple got divorced on October 15, police said.
Police said Preety went missing on October 16 and, the same day, Dhama was allegedly ‘active’ on social media, possibly for the last time. Photographs of his wedding with Chanchal, which took place at an Arya Samaj temple in Ghaziabad, were uploaded on Facebook around 3pm. One of the photographs was that of the marriage certificate, which shows the date of the wedding as July 13, 2018.
“On October 16, Gaurav posted pictures of himself and Chanchal on Facebook along with their marriage certificate. We contacted him immediately as we did not know who Chanchal was but his phone was switched off. Then, around 6pm Wednesday, we were told by Dhama’s neighbour that he had found Dhama’s body and that of a woman in the flat. We asked him to inform the police but he refused to do it. We reached the flat by 2am and called the police. We thought the woman would be Chanchal but it turned out to be someone else,” Jogender Dhama, Gaurav’s father, said.
Police, quoting the neighbour, a distant relative of Dhama, said he had gone to Dhama’s flat to borrow a spare gas cylinder.
“My husband wanted a spare cylinder and he went to Gaurav’s flat. However, after knocking for a few minutes, when there was no response, he peeped into the house from the balcony and saw something suspicious. He then broke into the house with the help of neighbours and found the bodies,” the wife of neighbour, who doesn’t wish to be named, said.
“Prima facie, it is difficult to say whether it was a suicide or murder. The autopsy reports are awaited and no case has been lodged as yet,” Munish Chauhan, station house officer, Surajpur police station, said.
Police said Preeti’s parents-inlaw had lodged missing person complaint on October 17 at the Ecotech 3 police station saying she had gone missing on October 16.
“Preeti had left home to pickup her children from school but she never reached there nor returned home. After waiting the entire day, we lodged a missing person complaint Wednesday morning. On Thursday, we got to know that she was found dead,” a relative of Preeti’s, who did not wish to be named, said.
“Chanchal stayed with Gaurav for two months in his Greater Noida flat and later, due to some differences, the couple got divorced on October 15. She came to her parents’ house almost a month ago,” SHO Chauhan said.