A Gurugram realtor’s alleged murder has raised questions over how an unidentified body was handled after the victim’s family claimed they were not informed before the body was cremated. Delhi Police have arrested the victim’s former colleague and her husband in connection with the case, while a court has sent them to five days of police custody.
Yuvraj Singh Manchanda, 31, had been preparing for his wedding when he went missing after leaving for a meeting on September 6, according to his family. His sister, Karishma, told a reporter that the family last spoke to him at about 7.30 pm that day after shopping for wedding clothes in Lajpat Nagar. He had said he would return after meeting a former female colleague, the family said.
The family later received messages saying that Manchanda was safe and that his phone might be switched off. According to his sister, he initially said he would return on Saturday and later changed the expected return date to Thursday. The family approached Delhi Police on September 11 after he did not come home.
The police investigation focused on Anya Vats, a former colleague of Manchanda, and her husband, Sanyam Sachdeva. Delhi Police traced the couple to Uttarakhand, where they were staying in a paying guest accommodation, and arrested them. According to the police, the couple allegedly told investigators that Manchanda had been killed and that his body had been disposed of in a drain near their home in Gurugram.
Gurugram Police had recovered an unidentified body from a drain in the Badshahpur police station area on September 10. The victim’s family alleges that the body was not matched with their missing-person complaint and that it was cremated on September 14 without informing them. The family said they were later told that the body had decomposed and that it had initially been believed that the person had drowned.
Karishma also questioned how the body could have drowned in what she described as one or two feet of water. She said the family was not given personal belongings, including a ring and a watch that Manchanda was believed to have been wearing. These claims about the identification process and the handling of the body have not been independently established in the supplied report.
Police sources cited in the report said the alleged motive appeared to involve a financial dispute worth several crores. Manchanda, Vats and Sachdeva had previously worked together at a real estate company. Police said Vats had been removed from the company over allegations of financial irregularities and had later worked as a freelancer while assisting Manchanda with some real estate transactions.
The reported account of the killing remains subject to investigation. Police sources alleged that Manchanda was shot in the neck from behind inside Vats’s SUV, but investigators have not officially confirmed the method of death. The post-mortem report is expected to establish the cause of death and provide further forensic details.
Police are also examining the accused couple’s financial transactions and earlier cases reportedly registered under information technology, fraud, domestic violence and related provisions. The immediate next steps are the custodial interrogation of the two accused, forensic examination and investigation into the circumstances in which the unidentified body was recovered, identified and cremated.
