Couple found dead inside locked house
GURUGRAM: The bodies of a live-in couple were found decomposing inside their rented apartment, which was locked from the inside, in Sushant Lok 1 on Monday, police said, adding they suspected the two had passed away at least 36 hours before being discovered. Police said they found the man hanging and the woman lying on the bed in the same room.
Sanjeev Balhara, ACP, said that they are probing if the man murdered the woman before he took his own life. “We haven’t recovered a suicide note from the spot. We are probing if anyone had spare keys to the apartment; we are waiting for the autopsy report before drawing any conclusion,” he said. The couple, both aged 29 years, had been living in the apartment for the last 18 months. The man was a chef with a five-star hotel in Delhi’s RK Puram and the woman worked at a food chain outlet in Gurugram.
Poonam Hooda, station house officer of Sushant Lok police station, said that they received information from the man’s cousin around 11.30am that he was not answering the doorbell and there was a foul from the apartment. “A police team broke open the door and found both the bodies in the bedroom. Prima facie it appeared that man had either strangled the woman or poisoned her, and then taken his life,” she said.
Police said the man had separated from his wife and had a daughter, both of whom lived in Delhi. According to his cousin, he was not on talking terms with his family. The woman’s family was also against their relationship, due to which she had left home, police said. Police said prima facie it did not appear that the couple was in distress. They were socially active and invited friends over for parties often, their neighbours said.
“This is a case of unnatural death. We are trying to ascertain the circumstances. As of now, an inquest proceeding under CrPC Section 174 has been initiated,” Balhara said, adding that the bodies had been preserved in the mortuary. An autopsy would be conducted once the families claimed the bodies, he added.
According to police, they found the couple’s cellphones on a table next to the bed and sent them to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Madhuban to retrieve information.