While the horrific revelations in the Shraddha Walkar murder case continue to shock the nation, another tragic case of a woman’s murder has emerged from Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur. A man allegedly strangled a woman to death and kept her body in a car for as many as four days after committing the crime. According to Kotwali station house officer (SHO) Pradeep Arya, the police recovered deceased Priyanka Singh’s body from the car in the Kasturba Nagar area of the city late on Saturday evening.
The girl was reportedly strangulated to death by her friend, Ashish Sahu, who owns a medical shop in the Dayalband area in Chhattisgarh over a financial dispute. After killing her, the accused kept the corpse in his car and started waiting for an opportunity to dispose of it. The incident came to light on Sunday (November 20) when a foul smell started coming from the car in which the accused kept the body of the victim. . The police reached the spot and recovered the body from the locked car and took the accused into custody.
Chhattisgarh | Body of a 24-year-old woman was found in the car of the accused, who owns a medical shop in Dayalband area of Bilaspur. The accused had befriended the victim & had allegedly lured her to invest some money in the share market: Kotwali PS house officer Pradeep Arya pic.twitter.com/1Cq7DOcD36
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) November 21, 2022
Police have registered a case against accused Ashish Sahu under section 302 of the IPC for murder and are taking further action in the case.
Kotwali station house officer Pradeep Arya informed that the police had started investigating the case based on a missing complaint that was filed by the brother of the deceased Priyanka Singh when he was unable to get in touch with her over the last few days.
According to the official, Priyanka Singh was living in a women’s hostel in Dayalband and studying for the Public Service Commission (PSC) exam.
Chhattisgarh police solved the case based on the victim’s phone location
On November 15, Himanshu, Priyanka’s brother, arrived in Bilaspur after his family found his sister’s phone to be continuously switched off. Himanshu went to her hostel on November 16 and was told that his sister had left the hostel at 1 pm on November 15 and had not returned since. When he couldn’t find his sister, Himanshu went to the Kotwali police station and filed a missing person complaint.
Police swung into action and searched for her last location through her phone calls. Police discovered Priyanka’s last known location at City Pharmacy, which is extremely close to the victim’s hostel and is owned by the accused.
Police reached the spot and detained Sahu for questioning. Initially, the accused tried to mislead the police but eventually broke down and confessed to his crime.
The police quoted the accused as saying that he befriended Priyanka Singh over time and lured her to invest money in the stock market. Priyanka Singh initially received 4 lakh to 5 lakh in returns, but soon lost 11 lakh, the official added.
The victim, who got restless after losing such a huge sum, started asking Ashish to return her money. When Ashish started avoiding her, she went to his medical store on November 15 to urge him to return her money. According to the official, the accused and the victim got into a heated argument, after which he strangled the victim with a scarf and killed her.
“I closed the shutter of the shop from inside and pushed her. When she fell down, I strangled her to death,” The accused told the police.
The police said that Priyanka used to park her scooter outside Ashish Sahu’s medical shop and left the key with him, which the police spotted in the CCTV footage they obtained. When the police asked the accused about this, he first said he had handed over the key to the victim’s friend, but later confessed to his crime.
