Case of body parts in 2 trains cracked — thanks to the testimony of killer’s speech-impaired wife

On the evening of June 8, a passenger train that plies from Nagda railway station in Ujjain to Ambedkar Nagar in Indore every day, pulled into the Indore yard for routine cleaning. Rinku Thakur, a railway sanitation worker clambered into the general compartment of the train, hoping to finish the day’s work quickly. But that day, as soon as he set foot inside, he was met with an unholy stench. Gingerly, he followed his sense of smell. He took a few steps, and spotted bloodstains. Then, a trolley bag and a sack. Inside both were the butchered remains of a human body, sans arms and legs.

Less than 48 hours later, at the Rishikesh railway station, more than 1,100 kilometres away, cleaning staff at the yard climbed aboard the Yog Nagri Express, that runs between the holy town and Laxmi Bai Nagar, a station on the outskirts of Indore. Much like Thakur two days before, their first red flag that something was wrong was the all pervasive stench of a rotting body. The source, they found, was a sack, hidden away in the passage between two sleeper coaches — S1 and S2. Inside the sack was a polythene bag. Inside that bag were four severed body parts — two arms and two legs. One one arm were tattooed the words “Meera Ben” and “Gopal Bhai”.

Thus began an investigation that lasted two weeks, spanned two states and on Sunday, led to the arrest of 50-year-old Kamlesh Kurmi; his culpability allegedly established by the testimony of his hearing and speech impaired wife, who watched him attempt to rape, and then kill and then butcher the body of 33-year-old Meera Damor from Renmau.

The investigation

On June 10, the first phone call Dehradun Government Railway Police(GRP) sub-inspector Anand Giri made was to his counterpart in Indore, town inspector Sanjay Shukla. With little to go on, his first thought had been to speak to railway police officials in Indore, where the train had come from. Immediately, Shukla told Giri of the body they had found on June 8. Everything seemed to fit. The body in Indore had no arms and legs; in Rishikesh those were the only limbs in the polythene bag.

Importantly, the Indore GRP finally had something to go on — the tattoo on her arm.

Shukla said that the Indore GRP began sifting through hours of CCTV footage from railway stations in Madhya Pradesh, from Nagda to Mhow, but made very little headway. Then, they asked police stations in the state to share details of missing women, particularly those with the name Meera. “We found 39 cases of missing women. But there was one who had her name, Meera, and her brother’s name Gopal, tattooed on the arm. She was identified as Meera Danmor, 33, from Renmau village of Ratlam, who had gone missing on June 6,” Shukla said.

Damor’s husband Bhanwar Lal, a truck driver, said that Meera had left home on June 6 after an argument between the couple. “I had come home late on June 5 and she started fighting with me. She abused me in front of our daughters, aged 15 and 12, and I slapped her. She threatened to break all ties with me, and on June 6, she just left,” he said.

Lal first thought that she had left Renmau, Meera’s paternal village where they live in a rented accommodation for a relatives home. “But I couldn’t find her anywhere. I informed the Ratlam police on June 6, because she would never go somewhere like this . Her phone was switched off,” Lal said.

According to a version of events put together by investigators so far, on June 6, Damor reached Ujjain railway station on the evening of June 6, and was waiting for a train to go to Mathura. “It is unclear why Damor went to Ujjain, which is over 60 kilometres away. She may have travelled there by train, but we are unclear why,” one investigator said.

At the Ujjain railway station, she was spotted by Kamlesh, who lives in a shanty on the outskirts of the premises. “She was looking worried, and he asked her where she wanted to go. She told him she wanted to go to Mathura, and he told her that the train to the UP town would only arrive the next day. It was going to be dark soon, and he told her that instead of the railway station which wasn’t safe, she should stay with him and his wife Aarti,” a police officer said.

She spent the night at their home, assuaged by the presence of Kurmi’s wife Aarti, who is both hearing and speech impaired. “On June 7, she was given breakfast by Kurmi, after which she immediately felt drowsy, and he tried to rape her. She started shouting loudly, asking him what he had fed her, and pushing him away. Kamlesh hit her in the face with an iron rod, after which she fell unconscious, and then he strangulated her. His wife tried to protest, but he threatened her with dire consequences,” the officer quoted above said.

In the hours that followed, Kurmi came up with a plan to dispose the body. He purchased a butcher knife for ₹300 from a shop nearby. At around midnight, he began cutting the body and stuffing them in three bags. “He did this till 4am. At 6am, he emerged out of his house to carry out part two of his plan,” a second officer said.

Kurmi’s shanty is on the outskirts of the Ujjain Railway station where trains halt, waiting for signal clearance. At 10am on June 8, as the passenger train from Nagda to Dr Ambedkar Nagar halted at the spot, Kurmi rushed to the train, and put two bags inside. “He wanted to put the third bag too but the train started suddenly. He was on the train when it did, and had to travel the short distance to the Ujjain Railway station and then return home,” said Sanjay Shukla, the investigating officer in the case.

He waited for six hours, when on the evening of June 8, the Yog Nagri Express stopped at exactly the same spot near his hut. “Kurmi rushed inside and placed the last bag in the compartment closest to him. He then returned home and took a bath, with his terrified wife unable to say anything,” Shukla added.

How the case was cracked

On June 7, after Lal filed a missing persons complaint in Renmau, the Ratlam police placed a phone call to her mobile phone. On this occasion, the phone number was on, and the female voice on the other end of the line told the officer that she was in Mathura, and didn’t want to talk to anyone.

For a while, there was little headway. Forty people were detained between June 13 and June 22, but they had little information to give. Then on June 22, as the police tracked Meera Damor’s mobile phone, they found that a new SIM card had been placed inside it in Ujjain. On that day itself, a swarm of personnel arrived at the shanty in Ujjain, and apprehended the 50-year-old. “When we arrived, Aarti was panicking, and trying to talk in sign language frantically,” the second officer said.

The police then brought in sign language expert Gyanendra Puruhit and his wife Monika Purohit who revealed a ghastly tale. Aarti Kumari told them that she was originally from a village in Odisha, from where Kurmi had bought her — it is unclear when — and forcefully married her. She described her husband as cruel, and his vocation as stealing from trains and railway stations. “She told us that he brought Meera to the house on June 6. On June 7, when she stepped out , Kurmi mixed something in Meera’s milk. He tried to rape Meera who resisted. Kumari saw him strangulating Meera and tried to intervene, but he thrashed her too,” the officer said.

That night, as Kumari watched, he cut Meera’s body parts and stuffed them in bags. Kurmi has now been arrested under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, and is in GRP remand for four days.

Investigating officer Shukla said, “We are now looking at whether there were any other women who may have gone missing from the area. Investigations are underway.”

On Sunday, Meera’s husband Bhanwar Lal travelled to Indore and identified her body, but has been told that it would be returned after a full forensic examination. “I curse the moment I hit her. I didn’t know that the next time I saw her she would be in pieces like this. All I want now is to take her home and give her a peaceful burial after such a brutal death.”