Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A man and his wife, suspected of murdering a 38-year-old woman whose dismembered body was found in a suitcase aboard the Tamil Nadu Express in Agra, have been arrested in Manipur after a multi-state hunt, police said. The accused were on the run for 24 days.
Manik Uddin Laskar, 22, from Assam’s Cachar district, and his wife Bhagabati Majhi, 21, from Odisha’s Kendujhar district, were arrested in Jiribam district on Saturday by a joint team of Manipur and Tamil Nadu Police.
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“The arrested persons are being handed over to the SHO of Guduvanchery Police Station,” a Manipur Police official said.
The case came to light on August 5, when passengers on the Tamil Nadu Express noticed an unbearable smell coming from an abandoned red suitcase in an unreserved compartment after the train arrived at the Agra Cantt station. Government Railway Police officials inspected the suitcase and found the headless, dismembered remains of a woman.
Forensic analysis later identified the victim as Hayathun Nisha, 38, a native of Odisha who lived in Guduvanchery near Chennai and worked at a private firm.
During the investigation, police analysed hours of CCTV footage from Chennai Central railway station. The footage showed Laskar carrying the heavy red suitcase through the station, with his wife Majhi accompanying him.
Police then traced their movements to the suburbs of Chennai and located a rented house in Guduvanchery. A search of the premises revealed additional dismembered body parts stored inside a large cooking vessel.
The case had initially been registered as a missing-person report at Guduvanchery police station. Following the discovery of the body parts, police altered the charges to murder.
Investigators identified Laskar and Majhi as the prime suspects and launched a pan-India search after the couple went into hiding shortly after disposing of the body.
On Saturday, officers tracked the accused to Kashimpur in Manipur’s Jiribam district, where they were arrested.
The duo will be produced before a local magistrate in Manipur before being taken to Tamil Nadu on a transit warrant, police sources told news agency PTI. The motive behind the gruesome murder will be known after their interrogation, they added.
– Ends
(with inputs from PTI)
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
