Deaths in Chandigarh's Buterla: Post-mortem reveals woman was murdered

In a twist to the suspected double suicide case reported from Buterla village in Sector 41, Chandigarh, the post-mortem examination has revealed that the 27-year-old woman did not die by suicide, but was strangled to death. The police have now registered a murder case against her deceased brother-in-law, Mursaleen, who is believed to have ended his own life after allegedly killing her.

The deceased, Nagma (27) and her 24-year-old brother-in-law Murasleen, were found dead in their rented accommodation on Thursday afternoon. They were found hanging in a room where Nagma’s two children, aged three and four, were present.

However, the post-mortem report has confirmed that Nagma was strangled before her body was hanged from a hook to pass it off as suicide. Clear pressure marks were found around her neck, establishing that she had been murdered.

Investigators believe that after killing Nagma, Murasleen hanged himself from a wall hook inside the same room.

Meanwhile, the bodies were handed over to the family. However, viscera samples have been preserved and sent for a forensic examination.

The Sector 39 police said the incident came to light when Nagma’s husband, Furman, who had travelled to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh in connection with house construction work, was unable to reach his wife through repeated video calls. Their elder child eventually answered the phone and reportedly told him that his uncle was “not coming down”. Alarmed, Furman contacted a relative in Mohali, who reached the house around 1.30 pm and found Nagma lying unconscious on a bed, while Murasleen was hanging from a hook fixed to the wall.

The family, originally from Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, had been living in Buterla for nearly 15 years. Furman works as an air-conditioner mechanic, while Murasleen was employed as a carpenter.