Wedding plans, unanswered calls and cremation that left family seeking answers

New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI): A wedding just weeks away, a newly finalised sherwani and a promise to return home after a meeting — that was the last known chapter in the life of 31-year-old Yuvraj Singh Manchanda, whose body was later discovered in a Gurugram drain.

Singh was murdered allegedly over a financial dispute that ran in crores, according to police.

His family, however, has alleged that Yuvraj’s body was recovered on September 10 by Gurugram police, but they were not informed and that it was cremated four days later without their knowledge.

The family said they learnt about the recovery only during the investigation into his disappearance after approaching the Delhi Police.

Speaking to a reporter, Yuvraj’s sister Karishma said the family had last spoken to him at around 7.30 pm on September 6.

“He had gone to Lajpat with us for wedding shopping. His wedding was to take place in a month. After finalising his sherwani, he left, saying he had a meeting with a former woman colleague. He had also informed his fiance and his boss about the meeting,” she said.

“After that, we only received messages,” Karishma said.

According to her, Yuvraj initially messaged that he was fine, asked the family not to worry and said his phone might get switched off. Later, he said he would return on Saturday and subsequently changed the date to Thursday.

“Then my sister requested him to at least show his face. She asked why he was not calling or coming home. He never does this. We started panicking because he never does anything wrong,” she said.

Yuvraj’s disappearance was particularly alarming for the family because of his responsibilities at home. His father suffers from partial paralysis, and his mother also frequently remains unwell, according to the family.

“Since he was young, he had taken responsibility for his home,” his childhood friend Rajat Jain told PTI.

Jain said Yuvraj was known to his family since childhood and had attended his younger brother’s wedding recently.

The family waited for Yuvraj to return before approaching the police on September 11, five days after he went missing.

The Delhi Police investigation subsequently focused on his former colleague Anya Vats, with whom he had the last-known phone conversation, and her husband Sanyam Sachdeva.

Police arrested the two from Uttarakhand, where they were living in a PG, after technical surveillance indicated Vats’s presence there. During interrogation, they allegedly disclosed that Yuvraj had been murdered and his body dumped into a drain near their house in Gurugram, according to police.

The accused also roamed around and then parked the car in their society with the body before dumping it in the drain, police said.

The alleged motive appears to be a financial dispute which ran in crores between Yuvraj and Vats, police sources said.

Yuvraj, Vats and Sanyam had previously worked together at a real estate company. Vats was fired from the company citing financial irregularities.

According to police, an initial probe of the accused’s financial details revealed that despite not having enough money, they were maintaining a lavish lifestyle.

Police said Vats was freelancing and assisting Yuvraj in some real estate deals. Investigators are probing the exact nature of their financial dealings and the circumstances leading to the alleged murder.

Police sources said the accused had allegedly made Yuvraj park his car before he got into Vats’s SUV. He was allegedly sitting in the passenger seat while Vats was seated behind him and Sachdeva was driving.

Sources claimed Vats shot Yuvraj in the neck from behind.

Police, however, have not officially disclosed the manner in which Yuvraj was killed. The cause of death and other forensic details are expected to be established through the post-mortem examination report being obtained from Gurugram Police.

On September 10, Gurugram police recovered an unidentified body from a drain under the jurisdiction of Badshahpur police station.

The family alleges that they were not informed about the unidentified body despite Yuvraj having been reported missing in Delhi.

Karishma said the family later learnt during the Delhi Police investigation that the body had been recovered on September 10.

“They said the body was decomposed and hence they kept it for three days and cremated it on September 14. I requested them to give me something of his that I could take to my mother. They gave us nothing. He was wearing a ring and a watch also, but we got nothing,” she said.

The family also questioned the initial explanation that Yuvraj had died by drowning.

“Initially they said he died by drowning. But how can it be possible that he drowned in one or two feet of water? They did not tell us anything. They followed no procedure. They did not upload the details on ZIPNET,” Karishma alleged.

According to the family, the Delhi Police later contacted their counterparts in Gurugram after the accused allegedly disclosed the location where Yuvraj’s body had been dumped. They allege that the details of the unidentified body were uploaded on the police network only on September 16.

The family is now seeking clarity on how the body was handled and why they were not informed before its cremation.

Vats and Sachdeva, who are married and have a one-year-old child, have been sent to five days’ police custody. Police are also examining Vats’s previous cases, including cases under the IT Act and for cheating at Parliament Street and Greater Noida police stations.

Another case, registered at Jagatpuri police station on a complaint by Sanyam’s former wife, involves allegations under the IT Act and domestic violence against Anya and Sanyam. PTI SSJ PRK

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)