Mystery surrounds woman's death at a hotel in Lucknow, police probe underway

In the Kaiserbagh neighbourhood of Lucknow, a 26-year-old lady was discovered dead in strange circumstances in a hotel room's toilet.

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Lucknow: A 26-year-old woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the bathroom of a hotel room in the Kaiserbagh locality of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh`s state capital, Police said. Lucknow Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Shivasimpi Channappa said that the hotel staff informed the Police that one of their guests had been found dead. "The police found the body hanging from a noose made of towel tied to a hanger rod in the bathroom," he added.

According to reports, the woman checked into the hotel on Sunday evening along with a man after booking a room for the two in her name by submitting a photo identity card.

She introduced the man as her friend, who identified himself in the hotel register as 28-year-old Nitin Dwivedi. A day later, the woman booked one more room on her ID and told the hotel staff it was for her cousin Sushil Kumar. She dined with Kumar in his room and stayed with him overnight. Kumar is now reported missing.

Dwivedi on being questioned by the police revealed that he works in a tile factory and lives near Sushant Golf City. He said that he was in a relationship with the woman for the past one-and-a-half years and they had come to the hotel to spend time together.

He added that the woman had introduced Kumar as her cousin. Dwivedi told the cops that he called the woman on her phone several times on Tuesday, but she did not respond. Then he went to check in Kumar`s room upon which he found that the door was open and the latter was reportedly missing.

He also found that the bathroom was locked from the inside. When the knocks on the bathroom door went unanswered, he called the hotel staff and with their help broke into the room and found the woman allegedly hanging.

The hotel staff then informed the Police. Dwivedi also informed the Police that a female friend of the woman, who lives in Lucknow`s Indira Nagar, knew about their relationship.

The friend on being questioned by the Police made a shocking revelation that Kumar was the woman`s former boyfriend, about whom Dwivedi had no information.

Hotel manager Balram Verma told police that before the body was recovered, Kumar was spotted by a waiter leaving the hotel. He told the waiter that he was going out to have tea and would return shortly, but he never came back.

The case became even more complicated for the Police when they visited the Rajendra Nagar residential address provided in the ID the woman had submitted at the hostel. Residents at that address told Police that none of the names mentioned in the ID lived there.

The woman`s identity was established as Chandra Tripathi from the Aadhaar card recovered from her handbag found in the room but another puzzling factor was that both the female friend and current lover of the woman, informed Police that the deceased had told them about the same residence which is mentioned in the ID. She had also told them that she worked in a cosmetic company, but Police could not verify even that.

Kaiserbagh Station House Officer, Ajay Narain Singh, said, "We are verifying the information given by the female friend and Dwivedi about themselves and efforts are on to trace Kumar." The DCP said that since Police have not been able to confirm the residential address of the deceased, the identity of the woman seems doubtful at present.

"Hence, the body has been preserved at the mortuary because as per the law, Police have to wait for 72 hours for the deceased person`s family to contact Police before conducting a post-mortem examination required to ascertain the exact cause of death. Simultaneously, we are also trying to trace the family through the documents found with her belongings," he added. Dwivedi has been detained by the police for questioning.