Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas city police arrested a man for murdering his live-in partner named Pinky Prajapati and storing her body in a refrigerator for approximately eight months.
The accused identified as Sanjay Patidar, a resident of Ujjain, murdered Pinky reportedly in June 2024 after she pressured him to marry her.
The victim who was in her 30s had been in a live-in relationship with Patidar for five years. The incident occurred when Pinky and Patidar had a heated argument about marriage which allegedly led Patidar to kill her.
The decomposed dead body was found on Friday, January 10 sealed in a refrigerator in a house that was rented by Patidar in Vrindavan Dham Colony in June 2023.
The victim was found dressed in a saree and ornaments, with her hands tied with a nylon rope. The body was covered with a bedsheet and had been stored in the refrigerator at its coldest temperature settings.
The crime came to light after Patidar vacated the house but left his belongings in two locked rooms. He told the house owner Shrivastava that he would vacate this portion later.
The current tenant of the house Balveer Rajput observed high electricity tariffs and shut off the refrigerator. By Friday morning, a foul smell emanated from the room leading to the gruesome discovery.
“After a foul smell started emanating, Balveer Rajput called the landlord who opened a portion of the house. The woman’s body was found in the refrigerator, the shelves of which had been removed. He then alerted police,” Dewas superintendent of police Puneet Gehlot told PTI.
Patidar was arrested a few hours after the body was discovered. He admitted to stabbing Pinky to death with the assistance of his friend Vinod Dave during an argument about marriage.
The police are in touch with the authorities of Rajasthan to interrogate Dave, who is currently imprisoned for another crime.
The incident echoes previous high-profile murder events such as the Shraddha Walkar murder case in Delhi.
In this case, accused Aftab Poonawala strangled his live-in partner Walkar and chopped her body into pieces in Mehrauli on May 18, 2022. He allegedly stuffed Walkar’s body parts into a refrigerator before scattering those at multiple places in the national capital over several days to avoid detection.
