‘Kin confessed when they saw canal where they dumped body’

UTTAR PRADESH POLICE HAD CREMATED A BODY THAT MATCHED VICTIM’S DESCRIPTION. HER IDENTITY CONFIRMED BY HER CLOTHES, BRACES

nNEW DELHI: Sheetal Chaudhary’s family tried to mislead police about her whereabouts and sent them on a wild hunt in an attempt to cover up the murder, said police. But when they accompanied the police and passed close to the canal where they allegedly dumped her body, they broke down and confessed.

Twenty-five-year old Sheetal’s body was found dumped in a canal in Jawan near Aligarh by UP Police on January 30. But they could not identify her.

An investigator, who did not wish to be named, said Sheetal’s husband Ankit Bhati, whom she had married in October last year, lodged a police complaint on February 17 alleging that his wife was missing and suspected her family to be behind it. A police team then reached Sheetal Chaudhary’s family residence in East Delhi’s New Ashok Nagar.

“When we enquired about her whereabouts, her family said she was at her cousin’s place in Palwal, Haryana. On February 18 our team arrived there but could not find her. On this, her family said she had left for Loni, Ghaziabad to visit her uncle’s family. We then drove to Loni the same day and found that she was not even there. On this, the family diverted our team to their native village near Bulandshahr, UP, but we failed to find her even there,” said a senior officer who did not wish to be named.

“We drove more than 250 km with her family members but failed to find her. While we were returning to Delhi, our team passed close to a canal in Jawan near Aligarh. Seeing the canal, her family members accompanying us broke down and confessed to having dumped her in the same canal after strangulating her. We then contacted the Uttar Pradesh police who told us that they had recently cremated an unidentified body who matched Sheetal’s description on February 2,” the officer said.

Sheetal’s husband Ankit said Chaudhary used to wear braces.

“The UP Police confirmed that the body they had cremated had also worn braces. We then asked Ankit Bhati to identify clothes the police had kept aside as evidence. He confirmed they belonged to Sheetal Chaudhary,” the officer added.

A police officer said they corroborated evidence with the family members’ phone locations and found that they all got together on January 30 in New Ashok Nagar and then drove up to the canal. “The records show that after that everyone returned to their respective houses,” police said.

On Friday, police arrested her’s father Ravinder, mother Suman, her cousins Ankit and Parvesh and two of her paternal uncles Om Prakash and Sanjay for her murder. Police said she was killed because it was unacceptable to them that she had married within the same caste.