Delhi Crime Branch cracks year-old murder mystery; woman, her boyfriend held for killing husband, dumping body in Haryana's Sonipat

New Delhi [India], August 3 (ANI): The Delhi Crime Branch has solved a year-old blind murder case with the arrest of a woman and her boyfriend for conspiring to kill her husband and disposing of his body in Haryana's Sonipat, officials said on Sunday.
The accused have been identified as Soniya (34), a resident of Delhi's Alipur, and her partner Rohit, a resident of Jaji village in Sonipat.
According to Crime Branch officials, the case dates back to July 2024, when the decomposed body of an unidentified man was found in a drain near Agwanpur village under Gannaur police station in Sonipat. A case of murder was registered but remained unsolved as the deceased could not be identified.
The breakthrough came when the Delhi Crime Branch, led by Inspector Sandeep Tushir, started investigating the long-standing disappearance of one Pritam Prakash (42), a proclaimed offender and a history-sheeter from Alipur.
His wife, Soniya, had lodged a complaint on July 20, 2024, stating that her husband had gone missing on the intervening night of July 5-6.
Officials said that during the investigation, the last active location of Printam's phone was traced to Jaji village in Sonipat. Surveillance led the team to Rohit, who was found using the deceased's phone.
Initially, he tried to divert the investigation by saying that he had purchased the phone from someone unknown. However, under sustained interrogation, he confessed to his illicit relationship with Soniya and revealed the murder plot.
Rohit told the police that Soniya had given a "supari" (contract) to kill her husband and had handed over the phone after the murder. He admitted that the murder was carried out in July 2024, and the body was dumped in a drain.
Soniya was subsequently taken into custody. Although she initially misled the police, she eventually broke down when confronted with evidence. She confessed to having paid her sister's brother-in-law, Vijay, to kill Pritam.
She told the police that her husband, a repeat offender involved in over 10 criminal cases, including robbery and kidnapping, was abusive and addicted to drugs. She had also asked Rohit to kill her husband, but Rohit demanded Rs 6 lakh by saying that he alone couldn't commit it, and he had to hire someone else. She didn't have so much money. In between, a case was registered against Rohit, and he went underground.
According to her statement, following a heated argument on July 2, 2024, she travelled to her sister's house in Gannaur in Rohit's taxi. On July 5, when Pritam arrived to take her back home, she decided to act. She convinced Vijay to murder him for Rs 1 lakh. That night, Pritam stayed back at the house and was killed by Vijay while others were asleep. His body was wrapped in cloth and dumped in a drain near Agwanpur village.
The next day, Soniya returned to Delhi and filed a false missing complaint. She later sold Pritam's three-wheeler for Rs 4.5 lakh, cleared her debts, gave Rohit Rs 2.8 lakh and paid Rs 50,000 to Vijay.
A few months later, she gave Pritam's phone to Rohit, instructing him to destroy it. However, Rohit kept and used the phone, eventually leading to their arrest.
Vijay, the third accused, was arrested in a separate theft case in June 2025 and is lodged in a jail in Haryana. Officials said that DNA samples taken during the autopsy of the unidentified body in July 2024 had been preserved, and further forensic verification was ongoing. (ANI)