An Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Saurabh Meena, was arrested in connection with the suicide of a woman whose body was discovered hanging from a noose in his upscale Noida apartment.
Saturday afternoon, residents of the posh Lotus Boulevard apartment complex in Noida’s Sector 100 were shocked when police personnel rushed to Tower 8 of the society. Upon arriving at Saurabh’s flat, they found the body of Shilpa Gautam, a Human Resources official at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), hanging from a rope made of cloth in one of the rooms.
Ms Gautam’s family have alleged that Shilpa and Saurabh had been in a relationship for the past three years. They reportedly met through a dating app, and their relationship soon blossomed. Shilpa’s father, OP Gautam, has accused Saurabh of deceit and physical abuse, claiming that the IRS officer had promised to marry Shilpa but failed to honour his commitment, leading to frequent arguments and alleged physical assaults.
Saurabh countered that although he met Shilpa through a dating app, it was three months ago and not three years ago as Shilpa’s family have claimed.
In his complaint to the Sector-39 police, OP Gautam went a step further, accusing Saurabh of murdering his daughter. He alleged that Saurabh lured Shilpa with false promises of marriage and repeatedly mistreated her. The police registered a case and arrested Saurabh.
According to Manish Kumar Mishra, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Noida, the police presented Saurabh at a court, and he has been remanded to judicial custody. “All aspects of the case are being investigated meticulously,” Mr Mishra stated. The police are awaiting the post-mortem report to ascertain the exact cause of death. In the meantime, they are also scrutinising the mobile phones of both individuals and analysing CCTV footage from the society to piece together the sequence of events leading to Shilpa’s death.
