Woman stabbed to death in Delhi by partner over old photos with another man

Police said the accused was obsessed with the lifestyle of gangsters he followed on social media and had developed a “violent and possessive streak”.

Police have arrested a 25-year-old with an extensive criminal record for the stabbing death of a woman in south Delhi’s Kotla Mubarakpur on Tuesday. He is said to have been in a relationship with the victim, was obsessed with “gangster culture”, and had a “violent and possessive streak”.

The accused admitted during interrogation that his insecurity and anger over her past led to the murder.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Ankit Chauhan identified the suspect as Himanshu Kumar, who has 14 criminal cases registered against him on charges of theft and robbery. He was arrested from Haryana’s Hansi late on Wednesday night.

After the murder, Kumar allegedly ransacked the room to make it look like a robbery, took Gurung’s phone, and, to avoid being traced, tried to show that he had fled through different routes. He then discarded his phone and hid in Hansi, Haryana.

“A joint team of the South District Police’s Special Staff, AATS, and technical surveillance unit finally tracked him down using CCTV footage, IPDR (Internet Protocol Detail Record) data, and local intelligence,” DCP said, adding that he was arrested late on Wednesday night.

“He admitted during interrogation that his insecurity and anger over her past led to the murder,” said a senior police officer. “He was influenced by gangster culture and believed that violence showed strength.”

On Tuesday night, the victim, identified as Sakshi Gurung,26, was discovered lying in a pool of blood inside her rented first-floor room accommodation. Neighbours called the police after they heard a quarrel and saw bloodstains.

When a team from Kotla Mubarakpur police station reached the spot, they found that the front door had been locked from outside. “When they opened the door, her face and neck bore deep injuries, and the room showed signs of a violent struggle,” DCP said.

Kumar has been arrested under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (murder). Police said further investigation is underway to verify his criminal links.

Gurung, originally from Sikkim, had been living alone after having lost both her parents a few years ago. Investigators found beer bottles, bloodstained clothes, and a broken knife handle at the spot.

There were no eyewitnesses, but CCTV footage from nearby areas showed a man leaving the building in a hurry around the time of the incident. Tracking the footage led the police across nearly 50km, eventually pointing to the fact the suspect had fled to Haryana, they said.

The suspect was eventually identified as Kumar, a school drop-out from Hisar. Police said he was obsessed with the lifestyle of gangsters he followed on social media and had developed a “violent and possessive streak”. At the time of the incident, he was allegedly enraged to see photos of her with her former boyfriend.

According to investigators, they had first met in Jodhpur in July this year, where Gurung — an employee of a call centre in Okhla — had gone for work and Kumar was hiding from Haryana Police. The two eventually began a relationship.

Over time, he became increasingly controlling and suspicious of her past. According to police, he had been staying with her for three days before the murder. “On October 7, an argument broke out after he allegedly saw old photographs of her with another man on her phone. In a fit of rage, he attacked her with a knife, killing her instantly. He stabbed her over 12 times,” an officer aware of the matter said.