Kanpur: Man’s four-month search for wife leads to her body, a gym trainer’s arrest — and swirling questions

For the next five months, Rahul, a 36-year-old who deals in the stock market, did everything he could to locate his wife – holding press conferences, meeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, conducting his own private investigation.

On October 26, police arrested Vimal Soni, 35, a trainer at Ekta’s gym. Police said that Ekta was in a relationship with Soni, who allegedly killed her in a fit of rage when she confronted him about his relationship with other women, and his impending marriage that had been fixed recently. The same day, the Kanpur Police finally dug out the skeletal remains of Ekta’s body from the compound of a gym within Kanpur’s Officer’s Colony, a kilometre away from the gym that Ekta frequented. Officer’s Colony is a high-security area housing senior government and judicial officials, and located next to the Kanpur District Magistrate’s residence.

Rahul, however, refuses to buy this theory. He believes that Soni kidnapped Ekta and killed her after she resisted his advances. Or, there could be “some other conflict”, he says.

Ekta Gupta was last seen on June 24 at her gym. Her body was recovered four months later.

What has driven Rahul all these months is his “faith” in Ekta, his wife of nearly 14 years. “Had I any reason to doubt her, I wouldn’t have spent the last few months searching tirelessly for her. I have travelled to several states, following leads about Soni from police as well as local residents. In July, I met the CM at the Janata Darbar in Lucknow, spoke with senior police and administrative officials in Kanpur, and sent letters to the Prime Minister and other authorities. I even held two press conferences to ensure my story about her kidnapping wouldn’t be overlooked,” says Rahul.

These days, he has been meeting visitors at a short distance from his flat in Kanpur’s Gopal Vihar Colony to shield his two children — a 13-year-old daughter and a son, 10 — from the theories doing the rounds. “I avoid playing news channels on the television at home. They don’t deserve to hear all these untruths about their mother,” he adds.

“Soni must be thoroughly questioned to uncover his motive. If necessary, I will seek court intervention to request that another investigative agency take over the case,” he says.

A disappearance, and rumours

Recalling the events of June 24, Rahul said when his wife did not return home, he went to the gym where people informed her that she had left shortly after workout. When Rahul inquired about the gym trainer, the staff mentioned he had left just a few minutes after Ekta.

Rahul asked for Soni’s number from the staff and called him, but his phone was switched off. Rahul alerted the police.

“Since he is usually the only trainer in the gym in the morning hours, I called him to find out if he knew where my wife was. I thought it was strange that he wasn’t around and his phone was switched off,” says Rahul.

Scanning the gym’s CCTV footage, police saw Ekta leaving the gym around 7 am. Another footage showed Soni allegedly speeding away in a white car – his friend’s, which he often used — a few minutes later.

As Soni and Ekta’s phones remained switched off 24 hours after her disappearance, suspicion about Soni’s role grew. Police, meanwhile, recovered the car that Soni had used that day. Inside, they found a rope, a broken hair clip, and a broken SIM card belonging to Ekta.

Rahul then filed a kidnapping complaint against Soni at the Kotwali police station. He alleged that Soni had drugged his wife by giving her a protein shake laced with a sedative, causing her to lose consciousness before abducting her.

However, rumours soon began swirling that Ekta had eloped with Soni.

“Since the police indicated that Soni played a role in my wife’s disappearance, I filed an FIR against him. I never thought that the decision would lead to such a fallout with many labelling it a case of elopement and making derogatory remarks about my wife… A relative even said it was pointless to keep searching for her,” says Rahul, upset that the police, too, attempted to turn it into a case of adultery. Not happy with the police investigation, Rahul said he began conducting his own “parallel investigation” to locate Soni.

He obtained Soni’s bank account number and, through a relative employed at the bank, collected information about his transactions. “We found that he had withdrawn Rs 2,000 in Agra and Rs 500 in Kanpur. We informed the police and travelled to Agra. We visited several other districts in Uttar Pradesh to check on his relatives, but were unable to locate him,” says Rahul’s brother-in-law, Shantanu Mishra, who works at a private firm in Kanpur.

After being on the run for months, Vimal Soni was arrested on October 26.

Police, however, deny Rahul’s charge that they didn’t try hard enough. A senior official said as soon as Rahul reported the incident, police collected CCTV footage from the stadium. Additional CCTV footage was scanned from across the city to track his car’s movement. “The car of the accused was captured in several cameras around the city. However, in areas without CCTV coverage, the trail was interrupted, allowing him to escape,” said the officer.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Harish Chander said police conducted searches across several states, including Delhi, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh, but were unable to locate Soni as he had stopped using a cellphone. However, he recently contacted his family, which enabled the police to trace and arrest him from a relative’s house in Kanpur.

‘How could he dig a pit in 45 min?’

During his interrogation, the accused told the police that Ekta came to the gym on June 24 and stayed briefly, during which they exchanged messages. She then went to his car, parked near Gate number 2, and waited for Soni to join her.

“Soni claimed that Ekta was upset about his interactions with other women and also about the news that his marriage had been fixed. An argument followed, during which Soni allegedly punched her in the neck, causing her to bleed and lose consciousness. He panicked and strangled her with a cloth kept inside the car. He then placed her body in the back of the vehicle,” said a police officer.

CCTV images from the day show Ekta walking in through the gates of the stadium – the gym is on the premises– as she always did, since her home was a mere 500 metres away, but don’t show her walking out.

The accused allegedly told police that he drove the car to several locations before arriving at Officers’ Colony. Having previously worked at a gym in the club, he still had the keys to the gate. According to the police, he drove the vehicle inside, dug a pit, and buried the body before leaving – all in broad daylight. The same afternoon, Soni returned to the site to cover it with more mud, said a police officer.

It is this theory, among others, that Rahul finds hard to believe. “There are several loopholes in the police theory…The police claim he (Soni) dug a 10-ft-deep pit in just 45 minutes to bury the body. It is also surprising that a body could be buried in such a high-security area of the city without anyone noticing anything,” Rahul tells The Indian Express.

According to the police, Soni also confessed to going to a river barrage with the intention of committing suicide before deciding to head to a bus stand and leave the city. Police say he last worked in a hotel in Amritsar.

After the post-mortem procedure on Ekta’s body could not conclusively establish the cause of death, police have collected samples of her parents for a DNA profile. Ekta’s family has identified the body from her clothes and hair.

“We will be approaching the court to seek police custody of Soni for extended questioning,” said the DCP.

During questioning, Soni initially attempted to mislead investigators, claiming he had disposed of the body in a river after the murder, said police.

Vimal Soni allegedly drove through the gates of Officers’ Colony and buried the victim’s body on the premises. (Express photo by Manish Sahu)

‘A strict trainer’

At the Green Park stadium gym, patrons and staff are in disbelief. Soni, the son of a retired employee of the UP Roadways department, had been working here since March 2023, drawing a salary of Rs 15,000 per month and training around 50 people, including 12 women, in the morning session. Two other instructors, including a woman, take care of the evening sessions.

A staff member described Soni as a “strict trainer” who never allowed anyone to linger at the gym after their session ended. “We were shocked to read about an alleged relationship between Ekta and the trainer… we had no inkling that something was going on between them.”

A woman who is a regular at the gym, too, says she finds it hard to believe the police’s theory. “I met Ekta around nine months ago at the gym, but I never heard anything about her having an extramarital relationship… I have seen Soni misbehave with stadium staff and speak rudely to the patrons. I am almost certain that Ekta would have nothing to do with someone like him,” she says.