Video, Naked Body, Missing Boyfriend: MBA Student’s Murder Shocks Indore

The naked, decomposed body of a 24-year-old MBA student was found in her classmate’s rented house in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on Friday with rope marks around her neck, indicating that she had been strangled. 

Around the time of the murder, a video of a sexual act was posted from the student’s phone to the college WhatsApp group in which her face could be seen, but the face of the other person was covered using emojis. Officials suspect the other person in the video is the classmate in whose house the body was found, who was also her boyfriend. 

On Tuesday, the woman, a first-year MBA student at an institute on Sanwer Road, went with her father to get her birth certificate corrected. That evening, she told her family she was going to attend a birthday party with a classmate, Piyush Dhanotia, and would return by 11 pm. She never came back.

That same night, the objectionable video was posted to the college WhatsApp group. 

The college management removed the video and contacted her father the next day, on Wednesday. They informed him about the video as well as the fact that his daughter’s and Dhanotia’s phones were switched off. 

The family then went to several police stations, and a missing person’s complaint was finally registered at Pandharinath late on Wednesday night. The family alleged that despite their repeated pleas, there was little urgency in tracing her. A policeman, they said, visited Dhanotia’s house in Uncle Gali in the Dwarikapuri area, but only locked it from the outside and left, saying the landlord would be informed if anyone arrived.

‘Identified By Her Socks’

On Friday, several residents of Uncle Gali complained about a foul smell emanating from Dhanotia’s house. Police went there, broke open the door and found the 24-year-old’s naked body lying inside. The body had decomposed to such an extent that the father said he could identify his daughter only by her socks. 

Rope marks were found around the neck, indicating she was strangled, and an initial medical examination estimated the time of death at around three days ago, which aligns with the day she went missing. 

Officials said Dhanotia is the prime suspect in the murder and has been missing since Tuesday. Dhanotia is originally from Mandsaur, where his father runs a grocery store, and had moved to Indore to pursue his MBA. 

The victim’s father alleged that his daughter was mentally tortured, blackmailed, and ultimately murdered by Dhanotia. He said the boyfriend had used his daughter’s phone to upload objectionable videos and circulate them among her contacts, and she had shared certain concerns with her younger sister before her death. 

Deputy Commissioner of Police Krishna Lalchandani confirmed that a missing person’s complaint was registered on Wednesday. “Prima facie, it appears she was strangled with a rope. Further details and the motive will become clear after the post-mortem report,” he said.