The police on Tuesday arrested a 35-year-old woman, Shefali Bhasin Tewari, for allegedly conspiring with her lover to kill his wife by pushing her from the balcony of their eighth floor apartment in an upscale Gurugram condominium on the night of Karvachauth, October 27.
The deceased woman, Deepika Chauhan (32), a banker, had fallen to her death from the balcony of her eighth-floor apartment in Valley View Estate, Gwal Pahari, on October 27 at 9.37pm. Her husband, Vikram Singh Chauhan, was arrested the next day for allegedly pushing Deepika when she confronted him about his extra marital affair with Shefali, who is married and lives in the same condominium as them. Shefali is six months pregnant, the police said.
Shefali was arrested on Tuesday from her house on Gurugram-Faridabad Road after the police perused through reams of transcripted conversations, primarily from Google Talk and WhatsApp, detailing a “well thought-out conspiracy”, which helped the police join the dots in the case over the past fortnight.
A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said that about two hours before Deepika was murdered, Shefali had sent a Google Talk-message to Vikram at 7.43pm in response to his complaints that his wife was “shouting like hell after a physical fight”.
Investigators probing the case said the message, in verbatim, read, “Balcony se phek do (Throw her from the balcony)”. Nine minutes later, Vikram had replied: “I want to…badly right now…she is shouting (sic)”. To which Shefali responded: “toh kardo (then do it).”
Another message sent by Shefali on the day, read, “Lol I was thinking you would have thrown her by now…”
A case was registered against the woman under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code at DLF Phase-1 police station. Vikram, booked under Section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code, is lodged in Bhondsi jail.
DLF Phase-1 station house officer Sanjeev Kumar said that Vikram, during his examination had revealed that the duo frequently exchanged messages on Gmail and had created accounts with their initials “to avoid identification”.
The police said that Vikram and Shefali’s chats revealed that the two accused, who were dating each other on the sly since November 2017, had been allegedly planning to kill Deepika for a few months, with Shefali coaxing her 35-year-old paramour to either divorce his wife or kill her.
The police officer said the conversations between the lovers over a period of two days before the murder indicated a failed attempt to kill Deepika, Vikram’s wife of eight years and mother of two, in Nainital.
“Vikram had taken his wife to Nainital on October 24 with the intention to push her off a cliff, but returned two days later confessing, in a chat (to Shefali) on October 26 at 11.41am, that he had ‘realised that she would not go to the edge (of a cliff) because she was feeling sick even at its sight’,” the officer said.
The officer added that the victim was scared of heights.
“Shefali had rebuked Vikram for returning from Nainital with Deepika and had called him a ‘loser’. In the chat, she chastised him for reneging despite her asking him to stay in Nainital even if it took him 10 days (to kill his wife),” the official said.
DLF Phase-1 station house officer Sanjeev Kumar said, “The two were in an alleged affair since November 2017 when they met in a park in the colony. In April, the duo had gone for a vacation to Leh-Ladakh for five days. The victim had allegedly found out about the affair after two stubs of a movie ticket were found from her husband’s purse,” said Kumar.
Police said Shefali, a freelance professional, was sent to judicial custody after she was produced in the district court on Tuesday afternoon.