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Journalism of Courage
A week after the body of a Swiss woman was found with her arms and limbs tied with a chain in Tilak Nagar, Delhi Police have written to an airline company to seek travel details of the victim, Nina Berger, from Switzerland to India. A senior police officer also said that they have retrieved the chats of accused Gurpreet Singh and Berger, and are examining how he lured the deceased into coming to India.
“We have written to the airline company through which Nina travelled to India and have sought her travel details… This will help us ascertain if it was Nina’s first visit to India and the exact date on which the deceased arrived in Delhi,” said an officer. The officer said police have also written to the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to get information regarding the immigration details of the woman.
Said another officer, “We have also received her check-in details at the two hotels in West Delhi which she had visited… As for the accused Gurpreet, he is constantly changing his statements regarding the motive behind the incident so it is difficult to probe based only on his statements… We are going through his conversations with Berger whom he has been in touch with since 2020…Gurpreet is said to have been in touch with several women whom he used to lure through gemstones. However, no other woman has come on record as being in touch with the accused.” Police said they have not found any evidence on the human trafficking aspect of the investigation yet.
Officers had earlier said that Gurpreet lured Berger into visiting India after he was infuriated with her refusal to marry him. After she arrived in Delhi on October 11, Gurpreet allegedly took her in his car to Vishnu Garden where he strangled her inside the vehicle and dumped the body along with the car in the area. Gurpreet came over the next day to check on the body and on noticing a foul smell, allegedly took the vehicle along with Berger’s body to Tilak Nagar and dumped it behind an MCD school.
Meanwhile, officers said that since the parents of Berger are unwilling to come down to Delhi to identify the body, they are awaiting an NOC from the Swiss Embassy following which they will set up a board to carry out the postmortem of Berger.
Meanwhile, police have found a suspected social media profile of Berger which can possibly be used for her identification.
Said a senior officer, “Gurpreet’s father’s location is currently in Leon in France and Berger had also recently shifted to Leon from Zurich, where her family lives, before coming to Delhi.”
