Delhi Police cracks woman's murder case after 15 years; husband held from Gujarat

New Delhi, Nov 7 (PTI) The Delhi Police has solved a 15-year-old murder case with the arrest of a man from Gujarat, who killed his wife in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri, an official said on Friday.

Narottam Prashad, a resident of Rajasthan, was arrested from Chhota Udaipur in Gujarat on Wednesday, where he had been living under a false identity and working as a manager at a cotton factory.

"Prashad had been absconding after murdering his 25-year-old wife in 2010 and staging the crime scene to make it appear as a suicide. A bounty of Rs 10,000 had been declared for his arrest," the police officer said.

The case dates back to May 31, 2010, when a PCR call was received at Mahendra Park police station reporting a foul smell from a locked house in Jahangirpuri. When police broke open the door, they found the partially decomposed body of a woman lying on the floor, along with a suicide note.

During the initial probe, Prashad emerged as the prime suspect but went missing soon after the incident. He was declared a proclaimed offender and the case remained unsolved for over a decade.

"Our team was continuously tracking the accused. On November 4, the team received information that the accused is hiding in Gujarat. On November 5, the team apprehended him from Chhota Udaipur and brought him back to Delhi the same day," said the officer.

During interrogation, Prashad confessed to killing his wife following marital disputes. He revealed that soon after marriage, serious differences arose between them. In a fit of rage, he strangled her and later wrote a fake suicide note to mislead the investigators.

Police said that the accused had been living a low-profile life for the last 15 years to evade arrest and had not contacted any of his relatives during that period. Further investigation is underway. PTI BM APL NB