New Delhi: A week after the body of a 36-year-old Swiss woman was found behind a school in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar area, police are struggling to establish a murder motive. On Saturday, a day after the body of the woman, believed to be named Nina Berger, was found with her limbs chained, the police arrested 33-year-old gemstone dealer Gurpreet Singh from his Janakpuri residence.
Sources in the force said that while the accused “has confessed” to the murder, he has been giving “confusing” statements and keeps changing them.
“First, he said that he killed her because she refused to marry him. Then he said that he owed her money. Later he changed his statement saying that she owed him money and refused to comply with his demands,” a senior police officer said, adding that the investigating team is now exploring two motives — her refusal to marry him and financial transactions between the two.
Sources added that while prima facie it looks like a case of strangulation, Singh has also changed his statement on how he killed the woman. “He first said that he tied her down and then strangled her. Later he said he killed her first and then tied her. Sometimes he says he killed her at 11 am, sometimes he claims he killed her after 1:30 pm. Only post mortem will clarify the cause and time of death,” a second senior officer said.
An autopsy is still awaited. Meanwhile, senior officers stated that they are trying to corroborate all of the accused’s claims. So far, police only have Singh’s custodial confession, and recoveries like a phone, laptop and a DSLR suspected to belong to Berger. They have, however, dismissed “human trafficking” as a motive behind the murder after certain media reports claimed so.
“We have found no evidence to connect this murder to human trafficking,” the first officer said.
“The motive appears to be financial. Some transactions have taken place in the past between the two,” the second officer added.
Sourced said that probe so far has revealed that she was killed on 18 October.
Speaking to ThePrint, DCP West Vichitra Veer simply said, “Investigation is underway”.
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Unclear motive
Berger and Singh had met in Zurich in 2021 after they got to know each other on a social media platform.
According to the investigation so far, Berger had reached Delhi on 11 October and checked into two different hotels, hardly stepping out. Singh’s presence in the hotels has also not been ascertained so far on the basis of human intelligence and technical evidence.
Sources said that Singh, who has deleted all his chats with Berger, stated during interrogation that he called her to India for a vacation and “killed her in the heat of the moment”.
During raids to arrest Singh, police teams had found around Rs 2 crore at his residence. Singh has claimed during interrogation that he is well versed in “astrology” and is involved in the family’s gemstone business. His father, who heads the business, is currently not in the country.
Earlier this month, just a couple of days before Berger arrived, Singh had tried to purchase a second-hand car in somebody else’s name but failed and ended up buying it in his own name. He allegedly killed Berger in the same car and kept her body in it for a whole day. The next day, he returned and upon noticing that the body had started to decompose, dumped it outside a school.
“We suspect he had already planned the murder. There can also be multiple motives,” an officer said.
Meanwhile, even as media reports said that the Swiss embassy has ascertained that the deceased is indeed Berger, senior police officers claimed that they are still awaiting official communications from the embassy via due process.
Berger’s autopsy will be conducted only after this communication along with a no-objection note from the Swiss authorities, since the 36-year-old, a lawyer as per her LinkedIn profile, is estranged from her family, said sources.
The woman’s family reportedly told Delhi Police that they wouldn’t be able to come to India to identify the body.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)