CHENNAI: A 38-year-old pregnant woman was allegedly killed by her lover after she refused to terminate her pregnancy and repeatedly pressured him to marry her, police said. Investigators suspect the accused later shaved and smashed her head to make identification difficult before packing her dismembered remains into a red suitcase and sending it aboard the Tamil Nadu Express.Hayathun Nisha, a native of Odisha, was murdered earlier this month at a rented house on Mosque Street in Guduvanchery, police said. Her dismembered remains were later found inside an unclaimed suitcase in a general compartment of the Tamil Nadu Express at Agra Cantonment railway station.The train had left Chennai Central for New Delhi on Aug 3. The case came to light on Aug 5, when railway police checking the unclaimed suitcase found the woman’s dismembered remains inside.As the train had originated in Chennai, investigators examined CCTV footage from Chennai Central and other railway stations along the route. The footage showed a man and a woman carrying the suitcase, helping police trace their movements back to Guduvanchery.Using CCTV footage, mobile phone data and other technical evidence, Guduvanchery police traced Manik Uddin Laskar, 22, from Assam, and his wife Bhagabati Majhi, from Odisha, to Kashimpur in Jiribam district of Manipur on Saturday. The couple was arrested and brought to Guduvanchery on Sunday for further investigation.The investigation led police to the rented house on Mosque Street where Nisha had been staying. Police said more body parts were recovered from a large cooking vessel at the house.Investigators then began probing Nisha’s relationship with Manik Uddin and found that she had become pregnant. Police said she refused to terminate the pregnancy and had been insisting that Manik marry her, leading to frequent arguments between the two.Police suspect Manik and his wife subsequently decided to kill Nisha. After the murder, they allegedly dismembered her body and packed some of the remains into the suitcase before taking it to Chennai Central and placing it aboard the Tamil Nadu Express, investigators said.During interrogation, the couple allegedly told police that Nisha’s head was shaved after it was severed. They initially tried to place the head inside the suitcase but were unable to fit it in. They then allegedly smashed it into smaller pieces and packed the remains inside, police said.Investigators suspect the head was deliberately mutilated and shaved to make it harder to identify the victim.Police are coordinating with Agra railway police to trace the remaining body parts and determine whether all the remains transported on the train have been recovered.
