Ghaziabad suitcase murder: How domestic help thwarted tenant couple's plan to flee with landlady’s body

NOIDA: The prompt presence of a domestic help foiled a chilling escape plan after a 48-year-old landlady was allegedly murdered by her tenants over unpaid rent at a housing society in Raj Nagar Extension on Wednesday night.

According to police, the sequence began around 5.30 pm when Deepshikha Sharma went to the tenants’ flat with her domestic help, Minni, to demand five months of overdue rent.


The woman tenant, Aakriti Gupta, reportedly said her husband Jay was not home and asked them to return later after arranging the money.

When Deepshikha went back later in the evening, Minni wasn’t with her. “She called me and told me she was going to Jay and Aakriti’s flat to collect the rent. I told her not to go alone and said I would finish my work and join her. But she was determined to collect the rent this time and went all by herself,” Minni said on Thursday.

When she failed to return, Minni grew worried and went to check on her. Jay allegedly told her the landlady had just left. Suspecting something was wrong, Minni searched the society but could not find Deepshikha anywhere.

She then returned to the couple’s flat and noticed them hurriedly preparing to leave, with blood stains visible on the floor.

Minni blocked their exit and alerted Deepshikha’s husband, Umesh Sharma, before forcing her way into the flat. It was then that she discovered Deepshikha’s blood-soaked body inside the apartment and called the police. The police control room received the call around 11.15 pm.

Neighbours later told investigators that they had seen Jay and Aakriti attempting to leave the building with a suitcase in an autorickshaw, using the staircase instead of the lift. Their plan was aborted after an unrelated heated argument broke out between two families on the ground floor, prompting the couple to return to the flat.

Police said the confrontation inside the fifth-floor flat in Tower F turned violent when Deepshikha pressed for immediate payment. During questioning, Jay allegedly confessed that an argument escalated into a scuffle between his wife and the landlady.

Investigators said Aakriti strangled Deepshikha with a dupatta, while Jay struck her on the head with a pressure cooker taken from the kitchen. The couple then stuffed the body into a suitcase and hid it in the bed box, planning to dispose of it later.

Minni’s second visit thwarted the couple's plans to dispose of the body. “They would have probably fled had Minni not raised the alarm,” said ACP (Nandgram) Upasana Pandey.

Police said the couple was under severe financial distress. Jay, who ran a transportation business, had suffered heavy losses, forcing them to sell their house in Sanjay Nagar and move into rented accommodation. Officers added that the couple struggled to meet daily expenses and were dealing with personal health issues.

Investigators are now probing whether there had been previous altercations between the landlady and the tenants and are reconstructing the exact sequence of events leading to the killing.

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