New Delhi: A young woman in Greater Noida teamed up with her lover to allegedly murder a shopping mall worker who physically appeared similar to her as part of a plan to fake her own death and then kill her relatives to "avenge" her parents' suicide, police said on Friday.


A body with the face mutilated by boiling oil was found in the house of the accused Payal Bhati (22) on November 13. The body was cremated by the relatives who believed it was Bhati, police said.


A purported suicide note was found beside the body with Bhati's signature on it. The note stated that her face got disfigured by hot mustard oil following an accident at home, leading her to feel that "the world would not accept” her and so she was forced to take the extreme step, a police official said.


It was actually the body of the shopping mall worker Hema Chaudhary (28), Additional DCP (Central Noida) Saad Miya Khan said.


Bhati had planned to kill her four relatives whom she held responsible for the suicide of her parents in May, police said.


"Both the accused, Payal Bhati and her partner Ajay Thakur (27), have been arrested," Khan told reporters.


Chaudhary did not know Bhati or Thakur. The duo chanced upon her at a shopping mall store and hatched the plan after noticing that she had a physical build similar to that of Bhati, the officer said.


Chaudhary lived in the Surajpur area with her sister, mother and child. She had gone missing on November 12. Three days later, her family lodged a missing person's complaint, prompting a police probe, he said.


"Thakur had befriended Chaudhary on November 12, taken her to Bhati's home on some pretext where they slit her throat, her wrists and killed her," the police officer said.


"After that, Bhati poured boiling mustard oil on Chaudhary's face and mutilated it. She changed the clothes with her own and then left a suicide note stating her own name as its signee," he said.


The police officer said Bhati had planned to fake her own death and then kill her cousin Sunil, sister-in-law Swati and Swati's two brothers whom she held responsible for her parents' suicide.


Bhati's parents had taken a loan of Rs 5 lakh from Sunil, who constantly nudged them for repayment. Bhati believed Swati and her two brothers also harassed her parents which impacted peace in their house, according to the police.


SHO of Bisrakh police station Anil Kumar Rajput said an investigation into the missing person's case lodged by Chaudhary's parents led them to Thakur who was found to have been in touch with the victim around November 12.


"It was only after this that the whole killing and the conspiracy behind it was unveiled. Both the accused have confessed to the crime," Rajput said.


Police said that after the murder, Bhati and Thakur shifted to Bulandshahr and the investigation team had started electronic surveillance and manual policing to track them.


They had also got married in a temple in Greater Noida after the murder, they said.


On the basis of a tip-off that the duo would be visiting Ghaziabad, they were caught at a police check post near Char Murti roundabout around 6 pm on Thursday, Rajput said.


While en route to a local court, Bhati, the alleged planner of the murder, told PTI that she had completed her graduation and wanted to join the Army.


“I regret doing it,” Bhati said when asked if she had any remorse about killing Chaudhary.


Meanwhile, the police said they have recovered the knife used in the crime, the deceased woman's two mobile phones, her smartwatch and its charger, her hair clips and some blood-stained clothes.


They also seized a country-made pistol along with some bullets and impounded a motorcycle used by Thakur.


"The body was cremated with Hindu rituals by Bhati's family who thought it to be her's. Moreover, one more cremation had taken place at the same spot after this funeral so finding evidence for DNA samples was difficult,” Rajput said.


However, a forensic examination is scheduled to match the identity now with the evidence collected so far and the confessions of the accused duo would be used in the case, he added.


The duo has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence and giving false information), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention), police said. 


(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)