Ghaziabad: A couple have been arrested in Ghaziabad for allegedly killing their landlady after she demanded payment of pending rent. The body of the victim, Deepshikha Sharma (48), was later found stuffed inside a suitcase in the rented flat, following which the accused, Ajay Gupta and his wife Akriti Gupta were taken into custody.
The incident took place at the Aura Chimera residential complex in Raj Nagar Extension. Police said Deepshikha and her husband, Umesh Sharma, own two apartments in the society. While the couple lives in one flat, the other had been rented out to the Guptas. Ajay Gupta is reportedly involved in the transport business, reportedly.
Investigators revealed that the tenants had not paid rent for nearly four months. Deepshikha, a schoolteacher, went to their flat on Wednesday to confront them over the dues. Her husband was not at home at the time. When she failed to return for several hours, her domestic help, Meena, began searching for her.
Meena visited the Guptas’ flat, but their responses appeared suspicious. She then checked the building’s CCTV footage, which showed Deepshikha entering the tenants’ flat but never coming out. The police were alerted soon after.
Around the same time, the Guptas were seen leaving the building carrying a large suitcase. They had even summoned an auto-rickshaw to leave, but were stopped by the maid, Meena, before they could get away. She insisted they return to the flat. “I told them they couldn’t go anywhere until Didi was found,” a distraught Meena later said.
When police arrived and searched the flat, they made a chilling discovery Deepshikha Sharma’s body had been stuffed inside a suitcase. Investigators suspect that an argument broke out when Deepshikha went to demand the unpaid rent, during which the tenant couple allegedly killed her, hid the body in the suitcase and were preparing to dispose of it, before the maid intervened.
Meena said she had warned Deepshikha against going to the tenants’ flat alone and had offered to accompany her. “I told her I would come with her, but she still went by herself,” she said.
Police said Deepshikha was first struck on the head with a pressure cooker and then strangled using a dupatta. Senior police officer Upasana Pandey said a complaint has been received from the victim’s family and a case is being registered under the appropriate sections of law, as per NDTV reports.
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