1 year after arrests in Delhi’s Trilokpuri murder, body part still missing

At the time of the murder, Deepak and his wife — who was five-months pregnant — lived in a separate flat a few lanes away

On November 27, 2022, a woman and her son were arrested for allegedly killing her husband at a one-room flat in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri, and chopping up his body into at least 10 pieces. According to the police, the man’s body parts were stuffed into gunny bags, refrigerated for around 48 hours, before being disposed of at an open ground in nearby Kalyanpuri.

The police found the body parts soon after they were dumped. (Representational image)

Poonam Devi, 48, and her son Deepak Kumar, 25, allegedly mixed sleeping pills in Anjan Das’s drink on May 30, 2022, and after he became dizzy, murdered him, left the body overnight for the blood to drain out and then chopped the corpse into at least 10 pieces on May 31.

They then stored the body parts in their refrigerator and over the next two days, before dumping the body parts.

The police found the body parts soon after they were dumped. However, Poonam and Deepak, who was her son from a previous relationship, were arrested only in November — around the same time as another similar murder, that of 26-year-old Shraddha Walkar, had shocked the nation.

A year on, investigators in the Trilokpuri case are still looking for a missing piece of the body — the torso.

“Last year, we found parts of a body… We found the limbs and head cut into pieces and stuffed in plastic bags. But we did not find the torso. In their interrogation later, it was revealed that Poonam and Deepak had thrown the torso in a drain in New Ashok Nagar. We suspect that because so many months had passed, the torso must have gone with the flow of the drain,” an investigator involved in the case said.

“They had initially either hidden the body parts or buried them. They were pulled out in the open by dogs and were subsequently found on June 5,” the investigator said.

At the time of the murder, Deepak and his wife — who was five-months pregnant — lived in a separate flat a few lanes away. The wife has claimed that one of the reasons that Anjan was killed was because he used to get drunk and molest her. The other reason offered for the murder was that he would steal money from Poonam to buy alcohol.

House rented after a year

Last week, Laxmi Kirad, 70, the owner of the first-floor flat where Poonam and Deepak allegedly killed Anjan, finally found new tenants — a 25-year-old couple in the dark about the murder.

Kirad, who lives on the ground floor of the building, said, “People treat my house like it is haunted. Just a few weeks after the arrests, a couple from Uttar Pradesh rented the house, but within two days, someone told them about the murder.

The woman then started saying that she could feel Anjan’s spirit, and emptied the flat in less than a week.”

Kirad’s 20-year-old daughter Sakshi said that their family have also requested neighbours not to mention the incident in front of the new tenants.

Deepak’s wife, meanwhile, no longer lives in her separate house, and has also changed phone numbers. Neighbours said the family members vacated the flat a few days after Anjan’s murder came to light, and they have not been in contact with anyone after leaving the locality.

Watertight case

Investigators are confident of securing a conviction in this case, which has gone to trial because of the scientific evidence they have recovered.

“We called Anjan’s brother and sisters from Bihar, and took their DNA to match the DNA from the body parts, and they matched. And though the accused cleaned the house, traces of blood were found on a wiper recovered from the house, as well as from the bottom of the bed. The traces matched with Anjan,” an investigator said.