Woman found dead in city hotel, lover beheaded on railway tracks

RAIPUR: The bodies of a 25-year-old woman and her lover were found in separate locations of Raipur between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Police are trying to figure out if it was a suicide pact or murder-suicide.

The woman, Vani Goyal's, body was the first to be found - on the floor of room 416 of a plush hotel on Jail Road. A few hours later, Vishal Kumar Garg's dismembered body was spotted on the tracks near WRS Colony, around 5km from the hotel.

Police have refused to say anything until they get the autopsy reports but suspect a love triangle. Both Vaani and Vishal, 30, were from Ambikapur town in north Chhattisgarh, around 330km from Raipur, and were believed to be in a relationship, say police.

A senior police officer told TOI that Vaani was staying with her brother and relatives in Saraswati Nagar area of Raipur for some time. Piecing together the couple's movements, police say Vishal arrived in the city on Saturday.

It appears to be a case of love triangle, says GRP-Raipur SHO
Vaani left her house on Saturday evening and her phone. Her relatives tried to contact her but found her phone switched off, the officer said. Worried, they filed a missing person's complaint with Saraswati Nagar police late Saturday evening.

Police started looking for her and discovered that she had hired a taxi to Raipur railway station. Then, they traced her to the hotel's vicinity, around 1km from the station.

"We tried to trace the woman during the night but could not succeed due to unconfirmed information. We kept trying to contact her mobile number, and suddenly the phone, which had been switched off, rang. To our surprise, a GRP personnel in Nagpur (300km away) answered it. Further investigation confirmed that the woman had checked into the hotel on Saturday. Early Sunday morning, we went to the hotel and found her body," he said.

GRP-Raipur SHO L S Rajput said Vishal's body was found on the track near WRS railway station. "He appears to have been beheaded by the wheels of a train. The incident occurred around midnight on Saturday, and we received information around 3am on Sunday," he said.

He further said that it appears to be a case of love triangle. A mobile phone, some old bills, and about Rs 1,500 were found in his wallet.

No suicide note has been found yet. "As of now, we cannot reveal other details. We are trying to determine if it was murder or suicide, and what's the Nagpur connection," said the police officer.

Raipur's Ganj police are in touch with Ambikapur cops. Investigators are trying to extract call details and other information from their phones in the hope of getting clues. TNN