NEW DELHI: Over a year after a senior manager with an IT firm in Gurugram was murdered and cremated under mysterious circumstances, her husband and his nephew have been arrested for killing her and secretly cremating her body. The husband, Karamveer Singh, inherited properties worth crores after her death and recently sold one of them.
In October 2019, TOI was the first to report about the murder case, which was registered 40 days after the crime was committed. The case was challenging for police as the body had been cremated and the evidence destroyed. The arrests were made late on Wednesday. The post-dated cheques received from selling one of the properties have been seized. Both the accused have been taken in police custody for two days.
A probe revealed that the husband of the victim, Shaila Singh (47), travelled 60km with the body in different directions instead of taking her to a hospital. The couple used to reside in an apartment at Chhatarpur.
When Karamveer was examined by police, he claimed that his wife had fallen sick and passed away. When his claims were verified with the locations that he had reportedly travelled to, it came to the fore that he never took her to any hospital.
“He said he had taken her to Batra Hospital and then thought about going to AIIMS, but by then she had died. When we scanned the routes, we found that despite 4-5 hospitals being on the way, he drove 60km away. The location of Krishna, his nephew, was found the same as his. Later, Krishna confessed that he didn’t kill her, but helped Karamveer dispose of the body,” said a source.
Police sources said Karamveer smothered her to death using a pillow on September 4, 2019. He then wrapped the body in a blanket and took it to his car. He then called Krishna saying he had killed Shaila during an argument and asked for his help in disposing of the body. The two went to Dera Mandi village and cremated her around 2am.
Speaking to TOI over the phone, Shaila’s elder brother, Kapil Singh, an NRI living in New York, said, “I had lost faith in the judiciary and police. When I received information about the arrests, my faith was restored. After her death, I flew to Delhi and filed a complaint. Shaila inherited properties worth around Rs 4.5 crore from our father. We will file a civil suit against Karamveer for selling one of the properties.”
Karamveer was found booked in an attempt to culpable homicide case registered in 2006 at Mehrauli police station. During interrogation, he told police that in 2001 he had met Shaila at Thyagaraj Stadium and they started liking each other. In May 2002, they got married in an Arya Samaj Mandir.