New Delhi: The Delhi Police has arrested a friend of a 30-year-old woman, whose body was found dumped in a Delhi Development Authority nursery early Saturday, it was revealed on Monday.
According to police, the gardener of the nursery lives in Sultanpur area in the vicinity of the victim's house and was friends with her.
"Her proximity with some other men irked him following which he along with some of his associates allegedly picked her up, gang-raped her and then killed her. The body was dumped in the nursery. He has been arrested and efforts are on to nab his associates," said a police official.
The accused has been identified as Ramtej (30), a resident of Sultanpur, UP. He worked at Kusum nursery in Vasant Kunj and lived in the same premises, police said.
Personal belongings of the victim including a mobile phone have been recovered, they said.
On Sunday, two people were detained in this connection.
The woman was reported to be missing since Friday morning.
The body was spotted by a security guard behind some bushes in the nursery around 8:20 am in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj area. The body was in a semi-naked condition with hands and legs tied with ropes.
"The victim was gang-raped before being murdered. It seems that the accused had also sodomised her and inserted wooden sticks inside her private parts before strangulating her to death," a police official investigating the incident told a news agency.
He added that the victim was a resident of Fatehpur Beri in South Delhi and had left her home at around 9.30 am on Friday. "When she didn't return home till late night her husband approached us and filed a missing complaint."
The woman was the sole earner in her family.
Her husband, both of whose legs were damaged a few months ago in a road accident, informed police that she left home Friday morning to go to the factory where she used to do tailoring.
He lodged a complaint at Fatehpur Beri police station.
The victim, mother of three children including a 13-year-old daughter, reportedly had extra-marital affairs with three of her male friends.
(With Agency inputs)
