New Delhi: The Delhi Police's Crime Branch on Friday arrested Manpreet Singh (45) from Patiala for allegedly killing his live-in partner Rekha Rani at their residence in west Delhi's Tilak Nagar.


Rekha Rani's body had stab wounds and was recovered from her rented house in Ganesh Nagar where she was living with her 16-year-old daughter for 15 years, as per the police.


The victim suffered two injuries from a sharp weapon -- one to her jaw and neck and the other to her hand. The accused reportedly cut off the ring finger of her right hand.


Manpreet is six criminal cases, including kidnapping for ransom and attempt to murder. He dealt with the sale and purchase of cars and is said to also be involved in forging of documents of cars to sell them at a higher price, the police said.


The accused got married in 2006. He has two sons from his wife. In the year 2015, he met Rekha and both decided to live together in Ganesh Nagar.


Police Suspect Manpreet Wanted To Execute Similar Plan As Shraddha Murder Case


According to the police, on the night of December 1, the accused reached his flat and put Rekha's 16-year-old daughter to sleep by mixing sleeping pills in her food. After this, he killed Rekha with a sharp weapon, which he had bought some time ago for the purpose of killing.


The police suspect that after coming across details of the Shraddha murder case, the accused hatched the plan and that is why he bought the sharp weapon. According to the police, Manpreet was planning to execute a similar plan, but because of the daughter's presence in the house, he chose to abscond instead.


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Tilak Nagar Murder Case


Police said that officers at the Tilak Nagar police station received a call at 12.38 pm and a team was sent to the house, news agency PTI reported. The team found the door to be locked and when they opened it, they found Rani's body. 


In her statement, the victim's daughter said she was sleeping in her room after taking medicine as she was unwell.


Unaware that her mother had already been killed, the daughter called her mother on her phone thinking she might be in another room and when Rekha did not answer, she looked for her in the house but found Manpreet. Manpreet told her that her mother had gone out and she was also told to go out of the house, as per the police. 


An officer cited by PTI said that after the daughter went out of the house, after which Manpreet locked the door and left. The daughter told the police that her mother and the man used to fight over money. 


"Gradually, Rekha felt insecure about Singh and she stopped him from contacting his family members. Singh felt frustrated and planned to kill her," Special CP (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said, as quoted by PTI


He said a case under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) has been registered on the victim's daughter's complaint.


(With Agency Inputs)