4 min readLucknowJul 1, 2025 05:00 AM IST
First published on: Jul 1, 2025 at 05:00 AM IST
It took close to a month for Kushinagar police in Uttar Pradesh to join the dots of a viral video of a Madhya Pradesh man talking about his “loneliness” and “richness” with an unclaimed body, and subsequently unravelling a murder plot that involved a “fake wedding”.
On Sunday, Kushinagar police arrested three persons, including a woman, for allegedly killing a 45-year-old man from Jabalpur whose body was found on June 6 in a bush in the Hata area. The body bore several injuries inflicted using a sharp-edged weapon.
Police said the three — identified as Sahiba Bano, her friend Kaushal Kumar and their associate Samsuddin Ansari, a driver — lured the Jabalpur resident, Inder Dev Tiwari, to Uttar Pradesh, where they killed him after holding a fake wedding ceremony.
The motivation was the victim’s properties.
It all began with a viral video of Inder Dev Tiwari talking about his property details and “loneliness over not being married” during a spiritual discourse.
“The three accused, all in their 20s, decided to grab his property by fooling him with a fake marriage. As part of the plan, Kaushal Kumar went to Jabalpur on May 16 this year. Kaushal met Inder there and introduced himself as Sandeep Tiwari. He also introduced him to Sahiba over the phone, claiming that she was his sister Khushi,” said Superintendent of Police (Kushinagar) Santosh Kumar Mishra.
Sahiba Bano, pretending to be Khushi, started speaking to Inder over the phone in the coming days. After a few days, she convinced Inder to come to Gorakhpur, promising to marry him, said police.
According to police, Tiwari reached Gorakhpur all alone on June 3. “Kaushal took him to Sahiba’s rented room, where the three stayed together. As part of their plan, Sahiba and Kaushal made Inder sign a document saying that after his death, Sahiba (posing as Khushi) and Kaushal (posing as Sandeep) would get his property. On June 5, they took Inder to a hotel in Kushinagar in a car and held a fake wedding. After the rituals, the accused put sleeping pills in Inder’s food and he became unconscious. As planned, the three then took him to the Hata area in Kushinagar, where they stabbed him to death. After killing him, they dumped his body in nearby bushes and fled with jewellery and cash that Inder had brought with him,” said the SP.
“During questioning, the accused said they made the plan after watching a viral video of Inder Tiwari, where he talked about being sad over not getting married and said he owned 18 acres of land,” the SP added.
Joining the dots
Police said that Sahiba, Kaushal and Ansari were arrested after a “thorough investigation” that began on June 6 with the recovery of an unclaimed body.
At first, the victim’s identity was unknown, so the Kushinagar police circulated his photograph on social media.
Meanwhile, Inder’s family in Madhya Pradesh lodged a missing complaint after losing contact with him. Inder had told his brother that he was going to Gorakhpur to marry a woman.
Upon learning about the unidentified body in Kushinagar, the Madhya Pradesh Police contacted their counterparts, leading a team from Kushinagar to visit Madhya Pradesh, where the body was subsequently identified.
While investigating the case, the Kushinagar police examined the call records of the victim’s mobile phone and identified a number he was in frequent contact with. Using that number, Sahiba was traced first, and based on the information she provided, the other two accused were also arrested, said SP Mishra.
Police said they have seized a car used in the crime, the victim’s mobile phone, Aadhaar card, ATM cards, land documents and jewellery that he had brought for the wedding.
The three arrested accused, all in their 20s, in UP Police custody (Express) 
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