NOIDA: A 32-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were found dead with gunshot wounds inside a locked car in Sector 107 on Saturday afternoon. Police are investigating the twin deaths as murder-suicide, based on a message in the man’s phone that indicated he had killed his ex-girlfriend before turning the gun on himself.The two were identified as Rekha, a resident of Salarpur in Noida, and Sumit Kumar, a resident of Trilokpuri in Delhi. Rekha worked in a private company in Sector 62, while Sumit had a mineral water plant business.The deaths were discovered around 1pm on Saturday when locals found a suspiciously parked car near Dadri Road, close to pillar no 84, police said. The vehicle had been stationary for a long time. Passersby found a man, with a gun in his hand, and a woman, bleeding and unconscious in their seats, after which they alerted the police.A team from the Sector 39 police station broke open a window and discovered both dead from head gunshot wounds. They recovered a pistol, two spent cartridges, and confirmed the weapon was illegal.Separately, police are also looking at a message purportedly typed by Sumit on WhatsApp at 3.39pm on Friday. In the message, Sumit wrote that the two had been in a relationship for 15 years and had plans to get married. However, he wrote, Rekha recently decided to marry someone else, which prompted him to take the extreme step. It was not immediately clear if he sent the message to anyone or saved it for himself. Rekha’s family, meanwhile, claimed Sumit had been harassing her and a complaint was filed in the past. The matter was later resolved after he apologized and assured that he would not trouble her again, the family alleged. Rekha’s brother said the couple’s relationship had become strained in recent months as her family was arranging her marriage elsewhere because they belonged to different castes.Both families had filed missing person complaints on Friday – Rekha’s at Sector 58 police station in Noida and Sumit’s in Delhi.Investigators said it was likely the two planned the meeting in advance. Police are scanning CCTV footage from over 50 cameras in the area to determine when Rekha left her office and where she met Sumit. According to police sources, Rekha’s family said she usually returned home by 7pm. When she did not on Friday, they approached a local police outpost later in the night. Her phone remained off through Friday but was switched on around 7am on Saturday. Calls to it went unanswered.This indicates one or both was alive at the time and the shootings happened later in the morning on Saturday.Sumit’s brother Sachin questioned the circumstance of their deaths and said the spot where the car was found was less than a kilometer from Rekha’s house. He demanded a thorough investigation to rule out foul play.Additional deputy commissioner of police Manisha Singh told reporters, “Forensic teams were called to the spot. Blood samples, the weapon, and other material evidence were collected. Ballistic examination of the pistol will help determine the sequence of firing, the distance from which the shots were fired, and other crucial details,” she said. Officials said mobile phone data of both the deceased will be examined to reconstruct their movements and conversations prior to the incident. This is important because it will determine whether they spent the entire time in the car since they met on Friday evening, went somewhere or met someone.
