Police investigations spanning Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have uncovered chilling details in the murder of a 32-year-old woman from Ambala, whose partially burnt body was recovered from a forested area in Sirmaur district earlier this week. The victim, identified as Amandeep, had been missing since May 12 after leaving her home in Haryana’s Barara area to collect her mother’s medical reports.

The case came to light on Wednesday after local police recovered a partially charred female body near a police battalion camp in the Paonta Sahib subdivision. Acting on technical evidence and CCTV footage, police from Ambala and Sirmaur conducted a joint operation and arrested Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Janakpuri Colony in Barara, near the Bata Pul area the same night. Police officials said the accused has confessed to the crime, while investigations continue into the motive and the possible involvement of other individuals.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Suresh Sharma, Amandeep worked as a mathematics teacher and provided private tuition classes in Ambala. Preliminary investigations revealed that she had known the accused for several years and was allegedly in a relationship with him, unaware that he was already married. Police said the accused, who runs an inverter repair business, allegedly called the woman to a rented room in Ambala, where he poisoned her by lacing a cold drink.

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Investigators said the accused then packed the body into a large sack and attempted to dispose of it to destroy evidence. Police stated that Kumar paid a cart puller Rs 100 to transport the bag to his parked Swift Dzire car. CCTV cameras installed near the building reportedly captured the accused repeatedly carrying the heavy sack down the stairs, footage that later became a crucial breakthrough in the investigation. Authorities also suspect another individual accompanied the accused during transportation of the body and are working to establish the accomplice’s identity.

Police said the accused drove nearly 100 kilometres from Barara to a dense forested stretch under Kolar panchayat in Paonta Sahib, close to National Highway-7, where he allegedly poured petrol on the body and set it on fire in an attempt to prevent identification. Following the victim’s disappearance, Ambala police had initially registered a kidnapping case against the accused before the investigation escalated into a murder probe. Authorities have now invoked charges related to murder and destruction of evidence under relevant legal provisions.

Officials described the crime as meticulously planned, citing the accused’s efforts to transport the body across state lines and destroy forensic evidence. Police are expected to seek custodial remand of the accused to investigate the larger conspiracy and establish the precise motive behind the killing. Family members of the victim said Amandeep had been supporting her household after her father’s death last year, using her tuition income to care for her mother and younger sister, both of whom reportedly depended on her financially and medically.

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