Delhi: 35-year-old woman found stabbed to death, live-in partner arrested

A 35-year-old woman was allegedly stabbed to death by her live-in partner in west Delhi's Tilak Nagar, police said on Friday. Rekha Rani's body had stab wounds and was recovered from her rented house in Ganesh Nagar where she was living with her 16-year-old daughter for 15 years, they said.

Police said her live-in-partner Manpreet Singh (45) was arrested from Punjab on Friday evening for killing her. The daughter told police that her mother and the man used to fight over money. Officers at the Tilak Nagar police station received a call at 12.38 pm and a team was sent to the house, police said.

The team found the door to be locked and when they opened it, they found Rani's body, they said. In her statement, the victim's daughter said she was sleeping in her room after taking medicine as she was unwell.

Unaware that her mother had already been killed, she called Rani on her phone thinking she might be in another room, a police officer said. When Rani did not answer, she looked for her in the house but found Singh. When she asked him about her mother, she was told that Rani had gone out and she was also told to go out of the house, the officer said.

The officer said after Rani's daughter went out of the house, Singh locked the door and left. It has been revealed that the woman suffered two injuries from a sharp weapon -- one to her jaw and neck and the other to her hand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Ghanshyam Bansal said.

He said a case under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) has been registered on the victim's daughter's complaint. It was in 2015 that Singh met Rani and soon after they started living together at Ganesh Nagar in Delhi, police said.

"Gradually, Rekha felt insecure about Singh and she stopped him from contacting his family members. Singh felt frustrated and planned to kill her," Special CP (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said. Singh, who was arrested from Patiala on Friday, is named in six criminal cases, including kidnapping for ransom and attempt to murder, he said.

The accused dealt with sale and purchase of cars, he was also involved in forging of documents of cars to sell them at a higher price, the senior police officer said.

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