NEW DELHI: A 25-year-old BPO executive allegedly throttled his wife in his car, stuffed her body inside a suitcase and dumped it in a field along the Mayur Vihar-Akshardham road on Saturday night. His wife had been staying at her parents' house in east Delhi for a fortnight and had gone to Noida to meet him on Saturday on his request. The husband initially misled the wife's family and police by claiming he had not met her-he even went to register a missing complaint.

However, the police nailed his lies on Monday after spotting him with his wife in the CCTV footage of a Metro station where they had met that weekend. Om Prakash Bhati was arrested and the body of Neetu Gaur (23) was recovered on Tuesday. Om Prakash told police he suspected his wife of infidelity which was the reason behind his brutal act.

"A case of murder, abduction and destruction of evidence has been registered. He has been arrested and taken on remand," Ajay Kumar, DCP of east district, said.

Neetu got married to Om Prakash in November last year and the couple lived in Arun Enclave in Ghaziabad. Neetu's father worked as a clerk in Lalit Kala Academy while Om Prakash's father owned several acres of land in Uttar Pradesh. Om Prakash had completed an MBA in 2012 and worked in the BPO wing of a telecom major.

Om Prakash had lately been suspecting Neetu of having an affair. "Her phone would be busy. She would lie saying she was talking to her family," he said during interrogation. Neetu's family rubbished Om Prakash's claims and instead alleged Om Prakash eliminated her after she found out about his own affair with his colleague. Neetu's brother Sanjay said Neetu had read a few objectionable messages on his phone last month and even told his mother about them. They also complained of being harassed by Om Prakash's family for dowry.

Due to differences, Neetu went to live with her parents in Kalyanpuri on June 8. On Saturday morning, Om Prakash called up Neetu and asked her to meet him at Sector 18 Metro station. He promised to take her for a film and shopping and said he wanted to surprise her. Om Prakash asked her to keep their meeting a secret from her family but Neetu told her mother.

Around 3.15pm, Neetu's brother Sanjay got a call from Om Prakash saying Neetu did not meet him and her mobile phone was switched off. Around 8pm, Om Prakash and Neetu's family registered a missing complaint. When police started looking for Neetu, Om Prakash tried to mislead them by asking them to track her mobile number.

A team led by ACP Kalyanpuri Sanjay Sehrawat confronted Om Prakash Bhati with the CCTV footage and call details on Monday. He led them to Neetu's body on Tuesday morning. It had been stuffed in a brown suitcase in bushes beside the road. It was sent for a postmortem. "The couple began arguing and continued to argue as Bhati drove towards Noida Link Road. He stopped at a desolate spot and strangled Neetu. He then emptied the suitcase kept at the backseat and stuffed the body in it," said an investigator.

Om Prakash drove towards Mayur Vihar looking for an empty spot and finally dumped the suitcase close to Mayur Vihar Extension Metro station. He then went home, changed clothes and called Neetu's brother saying she was nowhere to be found.

(With inputs from Aniruddh Saikia)

