GHAZIABAD: The body of a 26-year-old woman, who worked at a beauty clinic in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar , was found inside a trolley bag on the back seat of a car parked in Ghaziabad’s Khoda Colony late on Tuesday. A blanket had been thrown over the bag to conceal it from view.Police have identified the dead woman as Jyoti Verma, who lived in a one-room set on the top floor of a four-storey building at Vandana Enclave in Khoda. Shivam, who was staying with Jyoti, was arrested on Wednesday after questioning and charged with murder (Section 302, IPC) and destruction of evidence.A police team rushed to Khoda after receiving a call from Radhey Mohan Tripathi, the caretaker of the building. There are 33 single-room units in the building that is owned by Tripathi’s elder brother.Tripathi told TOI Shivam and Jyoti had introduced themselves as a married couple when they had taken the room on rent. “There was no ground for suspicion. They were well-mannered and paid rent on time. The rooms in the building are mostly occupied by workers and bachelors who stay out the entire day and return late at night. Over the past four days, there had been complaints of a foul stench in the buildings,” said Tripathi.Tripathi said he became suspicious when he saw Shivam loading the big, brown trolley bag into the rear seat of the car, which belongs to a company that allows people to hire and drive. Neighbours too complained of a stench emanating from the bag as Shivam carried it downstairs. “I confronted Shivam as he was trying to take the driver’s seat. He panicked when I asked him about the bag. He fled, leaving the cab and the suitcase behind,” said Tripathi.Khoda police station SHO Dharmendra Kumar said, “The cab was centrally locked. We smashed open a glass pane. A constable pulled back the zip of the bag, which revealed the body of a woman inside. We ascertained her identity from documents retrieved inside the room and contacted the woman’s family members.”From Jyoti’s passport recovered from her room, police were able to trace her permanent residence to Ludhiana. Shivam’s residence was also been traced to Ludhiana from his Aadhaar card that was found in the room.A police officer said Jyoti’s body was decomposed and seemed to be at least three to four days old. It had been stuffed inside the bag in the foetal position. Jyoti, according to the autopsy report, had an injury on the lower portion of her chest. The report found ante-mortem injuries to be the cause of death.Jyoti’s family informed police she was the youngest of five sisters and also single. “Jyoti had left Ludhiana on June 6 after a visit home for her birthday. My younger brother had dropped her to the bus stop and there was nothing amiss about her. We were told by police she used to share a room with a man identified as Shivam who is also from Ludhiana. We never knew about her relationship. Some of our family members, though, remember having known Shivam in the past,” Jyoti’s elder brother Dharmender, who works in Verka Dairy, told TOI.

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