Ghaziabad: The body of a 40-year-old teacher, who had been missing since March 8, was found in a suitcase at a forested area near Gang canal, Muradnagar, on Wednesday. Police said a private firm employee, Deepak Kumar, who was in a relationship with the woman, killed her and then dumped the body. The accused has been arrested, and will be produced in court on Thursday.After the teacher, identified as Geetika Verma, went missing, her mother had lodged a complaint. Geetika worked in Silver Line Prestige School at Kavi Nagar, police said. “She was in a relationship with Deepak Kumar for the past nine months,” said a police officer. The accused had rented a flat at Brave Heart Residency, a society in Raj Nagar Extension.According to police, Deepak had been picked up for questioning after Geetika went missing on March 8 but released later. After checking CCTV camera footage from the area, police picked him up again on Tuesday afternoon. Police said he has confessed to the crime.Shlok Kumar, SP, Ghaziabad City, told TOI that after getting a divorce, Geetika started staying with Deepak in his rented accommodation at Raj Nagar Extension. Police said Deepak killed the woman because she was allegedly forcing him to marry her. Deepak told the police that she also started blackmailing him by saying she would file a rape case against him.“On March 8, the woman took a half-day at work and visited the accused person’s flat at Brave Heart Residency. In the society’s CCTV camera footage, both were seen entering the complex around noon that day. Later, they had a few drinks together. After some time, the woman asked Deepak about his marriage plans and their conversation turned into an argument. The woman then wanted to leave the flat and Deepak strangled her,” the SP said. “After that, the accused went to meet some friends in Noida around 3 pm. He also watched a movie with his friends. He returned to the flat the next morning. In order to dump the body, Deepak bought a suitcase from World Square Mall at Mohan Nagar area later that day. He returned home, put the woman’s body, her mobile and her purse inside the suitcase, took it to the forested area and dumped it there,” Kumar added.Deepak has been booked under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearing of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC.Police said Geetika and Deepak got to know each other last year through Instagram. Soon, Deepak rented the Raj Nagar flat so that they could stay together.

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