MEERUT: Two men were arrested on Monday for allegedly beheading a Delhi-based woman and dumping the body near a canal in a forested part of a village in Bulandshahr’s Narsena area. One of those nabbed was her ‘lover’, Vikas Kumar, who had lived with her in Delhi for about three years, police said.Babli Devi, 38, was a resident of Kalyanpuri in East Delhi. Her decomposed torso was found in Ghunghrawali village on March 15. With no immediate clues, cops conducted her last rites on March 18.A breakthrough was achieved days later when Babli’s Delhi-based family — her mother, daughter and brother-in-law — noticed her photo, posted by cops, on social media and approached police on March 22, confirming her identity.Bulandshahr SP city, Shanker Prasad, said, “Investigation found that the prime accused, Vikas Kumar, 32, a Bulandshahr native, had earlier worked with Babli’s late husband at a private hospital in Delhi and was known to the family. After the husband’s death owing to cancer two-and-a-half years ago, they developed a relationship and started living together in Delhi.”However, their relationship began to collapse when Vikas decided to get married elsewhere in Dec 2025, and Babli allegedly continued to pressure him to stay with her. “Babli has three daughters. They live with their grandmother… On March 15, Vikas lured her to his village in Bulandshahr. They went there on a bike,” the SP said.Once there, Vikas called his cousin Sachin and Aman Kumar, a friend, and consumed alcohol. All of them met in a forested stretch, and grabbed Babli by her limbs, decapitated her with a sharp weapon and threw her head about 500m away to “hide her identity”.After the horrific act, Vikas attended a family function in his village and later returned to Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, where he’d shifted after marriage. He also lodged a “missing” complaint to mislead cops.The SP added: “Through surveillance, we established his presence near the crime scene and he was held in Muradnagar. Aman was picked from Bulandshahr. The weapon used to kill Babli along with illegal firearms and the bike were found. An FIR was registered under BNS sections of ‘murder’ and ‘disappearance of evidence’. Vikas and Aman confessed. Efforts are on to nab Sachin.”
