Tamil Nadu police solve suitcase murder case; couple arrested in Manipur after pan-India hunt
Chennai: In a major breakthrough, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested the primary suspects behind the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a 38-year-old woman whose body parts were discovered inside a suitcase aboard a train earlier this month. The accused, Manik Uddin Laskar (22) and his wife Bhagabati Majhi, were apprehended at Kashimpur in Manipur’s Jiribam district following a relentless multi-state manhunt, police sources here on Sunday said.
Chennai: In a major breakthrough, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested the primary suspects behind the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a 38-year-old woman whose body parts were discovered inside a suitcase aboard a train earlier this month.
The accused, Manik Uddin Laskar (22) and his wife Bhagabati Majhi, were apprehended at Kashimpur in Manipur’s Jiribam district following a relentless multi-state manhunt, police sources here on Sunday said.
According to the police, the horrifying crime came to light on August 5, when passengers aboard Tamil Nadu Express noticed an unbearable odour emanating from an abandoned red suitcase in an unreserved compartment after the train pulled into Agra station.
Government Railway Police (GRP) officers inspected the luggage and discovered the headless, dismembered remains of an unidentified woman.
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Subsequent investigation and forensic analysis identified the victim as Hayathun Nisha (38), a native of Odisha.
Investigating officers systematically analysed hours of CCTV footage from Chennai Central railway station, eventually spotting a man and a woman lugging the heavy red suitcase through the station premises.
Tracing their movements back to the suburbs of Chennai, police located a rented house on Mosque Street in Guduvanchery near here.
A search of the premises revealed more horrific details, as officers recovered additional dismembered body parts stored inside a large cooking vessel.
While the case was initially registered as a missing woman's report at the Guduvanchery police station, authorities promptly altered the charges to murder following the findings.
Police swiftly identified the suspects as Manik Uddin Laskar, a native of Cachar district in Assam, and his wife Bhagabati Majhi, hailing from Kendujhar district in Odisha.
The couple had gone into hiding shortly after disposing of the body, triggering a pan-India search operation by special police teams.
On August 29, officers tracked the fugitive couple to Kashimpur, Jiribam district, Manipur, where they were taken into custody.
The duo will be produced before a local magistrate in Manipur, and the Guduvanchery police will bring them to Tambaram on a transit warrant for further legal proceedings and interrogation; only then will the motive for the murder be known, police sources added.