- Illustrative photo: IANS
NEW DELHI: A man allegedly strangled his live-in partner to death and stuffed her body inside a refrigerator about 10 months ago in his rented house and fled, but the present tenant in the same house discovered the body while cleaning the house and subsequently the police arrested the alleged killer.
The shocking incident came to light in the Dewas city of Madhya Pradesh on Friday (Jan 10).
According to the police, the body of Pratibha Prajapati alias Pinky, 30, was found inside a refrigerator in a house in the Vrindavan Dham colony in Dewas.
The house owner is Dhirendra Shrivastava while presently a tenant, Balveer Rajput is living there for over six months.
Rajput was cleaning the house on Friday and noticed a strong foul smell from a room, which had been locked for the past ten months ever since the previous tenant, Sanjay Patidar (41) vacated the house in June 2024.
Patidar had requested the house owner to retain one room, saying he had some belongings inside.
Patidar had locked the room and was reportedly paying some rent for it too each month to the house owner.
He informed Shrivastava about the foul smell and subsequently the house owner rached there and they opened the room.
They noticed the smell coming from the fridge in the room and when they opened the fridge, they were shocked to see a woman’s body stuffed in it.
She was wearing a saree and her hands were tied and a noose was around her neck.
They immediately informed the police. A police team with forensic experts rushed to the spot.
During investigations, the house owner told police that he had rented the house to Sanjay Patidar in July 2023 and he vacated it in June 2024.
He retained a room and locked it, saying it had some of his belongings.
Later, the house owner rented the house to Balveer Rajput.
The neighbours told police that Sanjay Patidar lived with Pratibha in the house but Pratibha had not been seen since March 2024.
Patidar had reportedly told the neighbours that Pratibha had gone to her parent’s house for some time.
According to Dewas SP Puneet Gehlot, a police team was sent to Ujjain, where Patidar currently lives.
He was arrested and during investigations he told police that he and Pratibha were in a live- in relationship for five years.
He said that Pratibha was forcing him for marriage and they used to have regular arguments and fights over the issue. Consequently, Patidar decided to kill her.
In March 2024, he called his friend Vinod Dave from Ujjain and they killed Pratibha by strangling her.
After that, they stuffed her body inside the fridge.
Police said that the body was sent for postmortem and Patidar was being interrogated and further investigations were on.
As per information, Vinod Dave is presently lodged in a jail at Tonk in Rajasthan in connection with some other crime. - The Statesman/ANN
