Elderly Woman Allegedly Killed, Chopped Into Three Pieces, Dumped In Sewage Drain By Neighbors Over $1340 Loan

A 72-year-old Indian woman was reportedly strangled to death, before being dismembered, chopped into three pieces, and her remains dumped into a drain by her neighbors, for seeking payment for an outstanding US$1,340 (100,000 Indian Rupees) loan they had borrowed from her, authorities said.

The gruesome murder reportedly happened in Bareilly City in Uttar Pradesh, India. The victim has been identified as a 72-year-old woman named Kavita Grover. The elderly woman was a resident in Delhi’s Mohan Garden with her son, Manish Grover, a local property dealer, and her daughter-in-law, a doctor, the Indian Express reported.

The victim's neighbors, Anil Arya, 40, and his wife Tannu Arya, 35, have been accused of killing the Grover matriarch, brutally severing her body into three pieces, before disposing of her remains down a drain in Najafgarh. The husband and wife were arrested by Delhi police on Tuesday, July 13, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Dwarka district, Santosh Kumar Meena said.

The gruesome murder was reportedly the result of a heated argument that arose when the victim asked the couple to repay the exorbitant loan they had owed her, a police officer confirmed.

According to authorities, on the day of the murder, her son Manish and his wife had gone to his native village while Grover remained at home. When the couple returned, Grover and the neighboring couple were nowhere to be found.

On Saturday, July 3, Manish approached the police and registered a missing person complaint, telling authorities about his suspicions regarding his neighbors' involvement in the abduction as they were also missing. Police searched for the couple and tracked them down to a rented house in Bareilly. They were nabbed on suspicion of murder on Tuesday, July 13.

When the investigators questioned the couple, they reportedly revealed that they owed the old woman 100,000 rupees in an outstanding loan. When the victim asked them to repay the money, the two allegedly rebuffed her and said that the cash was their reward for looking after the victim's mentally challenged brother, SheThePeople reported.

This led to an argument between the elderly Grover and the accused couple. Following the confrontation, the couple allegedly strangled her to death using a water pipe. They then crammed her dead body into a trolley bag, but since it was too heavy, Anil allegedly decided to chop up the remain into three pieces and kept them in three separate bags.

The couple boarded an autorickshaw carrying the trolley bags later that day and dumped the bags at a canal in Najafgarh. Following this, they decided to leave the city for some time and moved to Bareilly, staying at their friend’s flat, a senior police official said.

The victim's decomposing body parts have been reportedly recovered from the drain, the police said.