A married man in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas allegedly killed a woman who was pressuring him for marriage and concealed her body in a refrigerator for approximately eight months.
The victim, identified as Pinky Prajapati, was discovered on Friday. Her decomposed body, dressed in a saree with jewellery, had her hands tied and a noose around her neck. Police suspect she was murdered in June 2024.
The accused, Sanjay Patidar from Ujjain, had reportedly been in a live-in relationship with Pinky for five years. Investigators believe that her insistence on marriage prompted Patidar to kill her, allegedly with the assistance of a friend.
“The victim was in her 30s. We suspect the murder occurred in June 2024. Neighbors reported a foul smell, prompting the landlord to investigate. Upon unlocking part of the house, the landlord discovered the body in a refrigerator, with its shelves removed, and alerted the police,” said Dewas Superintendent of Police Puneet Gehlot, as reported by PTI.
The property, owned by Indore resident Dhirendra Shrivastava, was rented to Patidar in June 2023. While Patidar vacated the property a year later, he left some belongings in two locked rooms, assuring the landlord he would retrieve them later.
Patidar occasionally visited the property, but the situation unraveled when the new tenant requested the landlord to unlock the closed-off area. After switching off the electricity on Wednesday, a foul smell emerged from the refrigerator, which had ceased functioning without power, explained another police official, Amit Solanki.
This case has drawn comparisons to the Shraddha Walkar murder in Delhi, where Aaftab Amin Poonawala is accused of killing his live-in partner in May 2022. Poonawala allegedly stored her body parts in a refrigerator before disposing of them across various locations. He remains in custody in a Delhi jail.
