In a horrific incident, a 26-year-old man from Bihar allegedly murdered his 23-year-old live-in partner in Haridwar on May 22 by strangulating her before stuffing her body in a suitcase and fleeing with the woman’s friend.

The deceased woman’s body was discovered two days later when the neighbours suspected of a foul smell coming out of the couples apartment, which was locked from outside. The neighbours informed the police about it on May 24 night.

During the investigation, it was revealed that the deceased was a resident of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, and was in a live-in relationship with the accused. Both the man and the woman used to work in the same company in Haridwar.

Kamlesh Upadhyay, Superintendent of Police, Haridwar, said that the couple used to work together in Gwalior where they had developed a relationship. They later shifted to Delhi last year where they had joined the same e-commerce company. In December last year, the couple, along with around 90 employees of the company had shifted to the industrial unit of State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited in Haridwar.

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The whole group had started living in the same residential area where the couple had also rented the apartment. The accused started getting close with another woman in his building, which increased problems between him and the victim. On May 22, while the two were in their apartment, the accused strangled her to death. He then stuffed her body in a suitcase in an effort to hide it and fled after locking the apartment, SP Upadhyay said.

After the investigation on the matter begun, the supposed lover of the accused was also found to be missing, which suggested that she must also have fled with the man.

The neighbours had said that on Friday, the man had put loud music in his apartment. He murdered her that night. On May 26 (Tuesday), we found the clues about the whereabouts of the woman and will soon nab her to know about the prime accused. The two fled accused will be nabbed soon, SP Upadhyay added.