Turkmenistan Woman Identified as Meerut Murder Victim; DNA Test Raises Fresh Questions | X @Sachingupta
The mystery surrounding a woman whose burnt body was discovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on February 21 has taken a dramatic turn after DNA testing confirmed that the victim was not a Delhi resident as initially believed, but a woman from Turkmenistan identified as Mohabbat. The case dates back to February 21, when the charred body of a woman was found in Meerut. During the initial investigation, police identified the victim as Archita Arora, allegedly based on an Aadhaar card recovered during the probe. Authorities subsequently arrested four accused, hotel owner Chanchal alias Bunty, along with his associates Arvind alias Monu, Sandeep alias Rahul and Vivek, and sent them to jail.
According to the police’s initial version, the accused murdered the woman because she was allegedly threatening to implicate them in a rape case. It is also claimed that she had been called from Delhi to a hotel in Meerut before the murder took place. Reports indicate that when police were unable to conclusively verify the Delhi address linked to the Aadhaar card, the body was eventually cremated as unidentified.
Mother From Turkmenistan Challenges Police Identification
The investigation took an unexpected turn when Gulnara, an elderly woman from Turkmenistan, came forward claiming that the deceased was her daughter Mohabbat, who had travelled to India around 15 years ago in search of work. Gulnara pointed out that the photograph on the Aadhaar card used to identify the victim as Archita Arora matched the photograph on her daughter Mohabbat’s passport. She further identified the body through the clothes and earrings recovered from the scene and expressed her willingness to undergo DNA testing to establish the victim’s identity.The grieving mother also reportedly wrote to the embassy seeking a detailed investigation into the case and raised questions about the manner in which the victim had been identified.DNA Report Confirms IdentityThe controversy has now been resolved through scientific evidence. DNA samples collected from Gulnara and the deceased were examined, and the results confirmed that the victim was indeed Mohabbat from Turkmenistan. Unanswered Questions RemainPolice initially claimed that the murder was linked to a money dispute. However, as the investigation progressed, reports began surfacing that Mohabbat may have been trafficked into India and forced into a sex racket. So far, police have not confirmed any connection to a sex trafficking network, and no official evidence supporting that angle has been made public.The DNA confirmation has, however, raised fresh questions about the case. If the victim was a Turkmenistan national, how did she end up at a Meerut hotel? What exactly was the dispute that led to her death? And how was she initially identified as Archita Arora?While the victim’s identity has now been established, many aspects of the case remain unclear. Investigators are expected to continue probing the circumstances leading up to Mohabbat’s death and the events that unfolded on the day she was murdered.