‘Will come back on Saturday’: How Delhi murder suspects kept texting victim's family, kept them in dark

Yuvraj Singh Manchanda, a 31-year-old HR professional with a realty firm, was killed, allegedly by a former colleague and her partner, on September 6. But until September 8, his sister, his parents, his fiancée, and his friend kept receiving WhatsApp messages from his phone – “Calling you, stuck in a deal,” “Going to Bangalore, can’t call right now,” “Will come back on Saturday.” Even the photo of a flight ticket from Noida to Bengaluru was shared with the family.

Only when his phone was switched off after the morning of September 8 did the panicked family begin frantically searching for him and reach out to the Delhi police.

“I last saw him on September 6 when we went to Lajpat Nagar to buy a sherwani for him because he was supposed to get married next month. It was odd that he didn’t return home that night after telling us he was going to Gurugram for some work,” said his sister Karishma.

The next day, as the messages came in, there was a slight sense of relief, followed by anxiety – Manchanda had never behaved like this. “It was unusual, but we had no option but to trust him. From September 6 to 8, we received messages from his phone. He would say he's busy and will come home in a few days. We even received a flight ticket message from his phone. He said he was going to Bangalore. On September 10, when his phone was unreachable, we rushed to the police station,” Karishma told HT.

On September 10, a body was fished out of a sewer in Gurugram’s Sector 70, and four days later, the Gurugram police “cremated” the body as that of an “unidentified” man, after an autopsy, even as his family – barely 15 km away – was looking for him.

In Delhi, on September 11, Yuvraj’s family filed a missing person complaint at the Lajpat Nagar police station in Delhi. On September 16, Manchanda’s former colleague Anya Vats and her partner Sanyam Sachdeva were apprehended in Uttarakhand and then arrested.

DCP (southeast Delhi) Vineet Kumar had told HT on Thursday, “We found Manchanda had last spoken to the colleague, Anya Vats. Her mobile phone was also switched off.” Investigators said both Vats and Manchanda worked at another major realty group, but were removed in 2022 due to alleged financial irregularities. Manchanda got a job at another major realty firm as an HR manager, but Vats did not.

“Vats emerged as a prime suspect. During surveillance, we detected a new mobile number being used by the suspect. Further analysis indicated her presence in Uttarakhand. A police team was deputed to Uttarakhand, from where Vats and her partner, Sanyam Sachdeva, were apprehended,” the DCP said.

Police said that questioning them revealed that they allegedly shot Manchanda dead after a heated argument, and they then fled to Uttarakhand.