New Delhi: A 26-year-old engineer was on Wednesday arrested for allegedly strangulating his wife to death and then chopping her body into pieces in southeast Delhi's Sarita Vihar area, police said.
The accused, identified as Sajid Ali Ansari, had frequent fights with his 26-year-old wife over his unemployment. He had recently become friends with another woman and wanted to get rid of her, they said.
Sajid Ali Ansari's brothers — Ishteyaque Alam Ansari, (28) and Hasmat Ali Ansari (46) — were also arrested in connection with the incident. Police also recovered a dagger which was used to chop the body, police said.
Ishteyaque Alam had allegedly helped his brother in chopping the body into pieces while Hasmat Ali had helped them in disposing it off in the jungle of Okhla Tank, they said.
On June 21, a dismembered body of a woman was found stuffed inside a carton and a black bag. Since the body was chopped into pieces and the face was disfigured, the deceased could not be identified.
Four dedicated teams of police officers were formed to track the case. One of the teams checked across all the neighbouring police stations whether any women were reported to be missing, but they did not get any leads, police said.
After tracking the case, police zeroed in on Sajid Ali on the basis of technical surveillance and local inputs. He was nabbed from his brother Hasmat Ali's house in Shaheen Bagh.
During interrogation, Sajid Ali revealed that in 2010, he had dialled a number by mistake. He became friends with his wife, who was a resident of Chappra, Bihar.
In 2014, they got married and had two daughters, aged one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half years old, respectively. The woman's family snapped all ties with her.
In 2016, the couple came to Delhi but Sajid Ali did not get any permanent job.
The woman, who came from a well-off family, was finding it difficult to live in poverty and the expenses had also increased after the birth of their children, said Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast).
The couple had regular fights over the issue. Meanwhile, Sajid Ali developed closeness with another woman at Champaran, Bihar and he wanted to kill his wife.
On June 20, Sajid Ali had a quarrel with his wife following which he allegedly strangulated her.
Later, he called his brother Ishteyaque Alam, who stayed with the couple, and told him about his act. Alam helped him to chop off the body into seven pieces and to dispose it to evade detection.
On June 22, he informed his neighbours that he was vacating his house and also his landlord.