Haryana man kills woman in Manali hotel, stuffs her body in bag; arrested

The body of a 26-year-old woman from Bhopal was found stuffed in a bag in a hotel in Himachal Pradesh’s Manali, PTI reported on Thursday, citing the police.
The woman had checked into the hotel on Monday with a man, who initially fled from the scene.
The police said that it received a call from the hotel staff reporting that a man was carrying a huge bag in a vehicle, raising suspicion.
“Following this, the police team reached the spot and found the woman’s body in the bag outside the hotel,” the Deputy Superintendent of Police K D Sharma told PTI. The accused fled from the hotel.
During the initial probe, the police found no photographs or documents of the accused as the booking was made under the victim’s name.
The police then launched a search operation and arrested the accused on Thursday.
The suspect was identified as Vinod Kumar, 23, a resident of Palwal district in Haryana, where he worked as a delivery boy. The woman was a 25-year-old woman from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, reported The Indian Express.
The police have also not ruled out the possibility of sexual assault on the victim. As per the Indian Express report, the man and woman had been in contact online for about three years. They had also visited Manali together previously.
According to the police, the accused strangled the woman following a verbal altercation in their room on Tuesday.
“During the initial interrogation, he confessed to killing the victim. The suspect and the victim were acquainted for some time. We have informed the victim’s family members, who will be arriving from Bhopal to Manali on Thursday evening,” Superintendent of Police (Kullu) Karthikeyan Gokulachandran told the website.
A case has been registered against Kumar under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.