Uttar Pradesh police were left stunned after a woman, who they presumed dead and was later buried by her family members, stood right in front of them on Monday.

The UP Police had found a woman’s body stuffed in a suitcase on July 27 in Ghaziabad, following which they shared photographs on social media as part of an identification drive.

Soon after, a man and his mother from Aligarh came forward, and the woman identified the deceased as Warisha, her 24-year-old daughter. The body was taken back to Aligarh and buried on July 29.

While the victim’s husband and in-laws were booked for dowry death and sent to jail, the Ghaziabad police team involved in the investigation got a reward of ₹15,000 for tracking the family successfully.

In a bizarre twist, however, Warisha came forward and narrated her story to a police constable in Aligarh, which led to the police realising that the woman in the suitcase was someone else, who is yet to be identified.

‘After the Ghaziabad police circulated the photographs of the body, Warisha’s family took notice and approached the police. Along with our officers, they went to Ghaziabad and identified the body…her husband and in-laws beat her up and harassed her for dowry; she fled their house on the afternoon of July 23,’ Hindustan Times quoted Santosh Kumar Singh, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Bulandshahr, as saying.

Warisha, married to one Amir Khan, is a Bulandshahr resident. She had come to Noida, where she earlier worked with an electrical equipment company and stayed there for a couple of days before returning to Aligarh of Monday, August 3.

The police have now said that the dowry death charge will be scrapped from the FIR.

‘…other sections will remain as the in-laws harassed her. Her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law are in jail. We will inform the court about the development,’ Singh said.

According to Ghaziabad police, Warisha’s family identified the body, following which medical officials conducted an autopsy and handed it over to them.

‘We will now register a case of murder and destruction of evidence, and probe the murder of the woman whose body was found in the suitcase,’ said Kalanidhi Naithani, SSP Ghaziabad.

‘Our officials, however, got the viscera and the DNA of the deceased preserved…this will help us in tracing the identity of the woman whose body was found in the suitcase,’ he added.

The cause of death of the woman in the suitcase has not been ascertained, said Bulandshahr SSP Singh.

‘It will be up to the investigating officer of the Ghaziabad police to investigate and trace the identity of the woman who was actually killed. The body can be exhumed…we may take legal action against Warisha’s mother and brother for identifying a wrong body,’ said Diksha Singh, circle officer (city), Bulandshahr.

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