Body in bag: One held, prime accused on the run

NEW DELHI: Two days after the decomposed corpse of a woman in her early twenties was found stuffed inside a black travel bag in a small locality of Uttam Nagar Phase II, one of the two accused in the case has been detained by the police for questioning. The prime accused though is still on the run, with police fearing that he might have left the city.

Though sources confirmed the incident, senior police officers refused to come on record claiming that the matter was still under investigation. "Our investigations are on and we are working on some leads. Several teams are working on the case and we are trying to identify the girl as soon as possible," said a tight-lipped additional commissioner of police V Renganathan.

"We have the passport copies of both the accused and know that Innocent Nwayo alias Mark, the prime accused, had come from Mumbai to Delhi. Accordingly we have sent a team there as we suspect that he has fled from Delhi. The other tenant, Michael, lived on the third floor," explained a senior police officer.

Police sources claimed that they had contacted their counterparts in northeast India for any clue about the identity of the victim. "The girl appears to be of northeast descent and is about 5 feet 4 inches, fair and slim. She was dressed in capris and her face was badly decomposed. We have also contacted northeast activists in case they are able to help with her identification. It appeared that she had been killed at least 18-20 days ago," claimed a senior police officer. Though police sources claimed that the girl was found inside the bag in just her capris and lingerie wrapped in a quilt, Renganathan vehemently denied the claim.

Innocent lived on the first floor and a third tenant, Michael, on the third floor. "They had valid business visas from October 2010 till later in 2011. They had told the landlord of their house that they had some export clothing business but we have not found evidence of any such business. We are probing their possible involvement in a crime racket such as drug peddling or cheating. From the information gathered from neighbours, it appears that the Nigerians were regularly visited by some girls," said a senior police officer.

A resident of the area claimed on the condition of anonymity, "Girls in the age group of 20-22 years would regularly visit them in expensive-looking party clothes and accessories. Once when I stopped them and asked them who they were, they claimed to be students. They would come in odd hours too. In March a Nigerian had been caught dealing drugs in the area."

While Michael had been living in the building for the past eight months, Innocent had started living in the house since February 4. Said their landlord Gurudev Singh, "Both of them were supposed to pay rent at the beginning of the month but they did not show up at my office. Innocent's phone was switched off while Michael wouldn't answer his phone."

Police claimed that there are roughly 2,000 African nationals staying in west Delhi alone. "There are quite a few of them living in areas such as Kakrola, Nawada, Anand Nagar, Uttam Nagar and Mahesh Nagar. Earlier we found several of them indulging in criminal activities and living on expired visas," said a senior police officer.

The decomposed body of the victim was found around 4pm on Friday after the police were informed that there was a stench on the first floor of the Uttam Nagar house.