Manchanda murder case: Family alleges body cremated, belonging given away, ashes discarded

The family of Yuvraj Singh Manchanda – a 31-year-old executive with a realty firm who was killed, allegedly by his ex-colleague and her partner on September 6 in Gurugram – has alleged that the Gurugram police “destroyed all evidence,” “cremated him as an unidentified man,” and “gave away his belongings.”

Ten days after the murder, the Delhi police arrested the accused, Anya Vats and her partner Sanyam Sachdeva from Uttarakhand on September 16. “After that, we were told that the Gurugram Police had the body since September 10 but didn’t upload anything on Zipnet,” alleged Manchanda’s sister, Karishma.

Zonal Integrated Police Network (ZIPNET) is an online platform for police and the public where public can search for details of missing persons by entering information for found date, age range, height, clothing, appearance, physical features, sex, state etc.

The service is coordinated by Delhi Police, Gurgaon Police, Rajasthan Police, Noida Police, Uttar Pradesh Police, Uttarakhand Police, Punjab Police, Haryana Police, Himachal Pradesh Police and Chandigarh Police.the police uses it to update details on missing persons and recovered bodies (identified and unidentified).

“They didn’t inform anyone and cremated the body. I rushed to Gurugram to collect my brother’s ashes. After waiting at the police station for three hours, the police told me that the ashes had been discarded… How is that possible? I am shocked,” said Karishma.

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

Manchanda was set to get married in October, and had gone to Lajpat Nagar with his sister Karishma to buy a sherwani. That was the last time Karishma saw him. After that, he headed to Gurugram “for some work related meeting.”

When he didn’t return home that night, his family called him multiple times, only to receive a text from his phone the next day that he was finalising an important deal and will call soon. This went on till September 8, and then his phone was switched off.

The accused, police claimed, were texting from Manchanda’s phone, who had been shot dead on September 6. “For two days, his body was in the car. On September 8, they dumped his body in a sewer in Gurugram and fled to Uttarakhand,” said a senior Delhi police official.

On September 10, his body was fished out from a sewer in Gurugram, and four days later, it was allegedly cremated by Gurugram police. “His clothes, his kada, his ring… where are they? I begged the Gurugram police to at least give his clothes but they said that the clothes were stinking and that they gave them away to the poor and needy. This was such an important case and now all evidence is gone. What should I tell my elderly parents?” asked Karishma, who said that she has been running from pillar to post, unable to grieve.

“We don’t have his body, his ashes, his post mortem report, his clothes… How is this fair?” she asked.