Realtor murder: Wedding plans, unanswered calls and cremation that left family seeking answers

Family Seeks Clarity After Gurugram Realtor’s Body Is Found and Cremated

Indiadailyupdate.com – The planned wedding of 31-year-old realtor Yuvraj Singh Manchanda was only weeks away when he disappeared after leaving a shopping trip with his family. A sherwani had been selected, and he told relatives he would return after meeting a former colleague. That meeting became the final known point in the events before his body was found in a drain in Gurugram.

Police have arrested his former colleague Anya Vats and her husband, Sanyam Sachdeva, in connection with the alleged murder. Investigators believe a financial dispute involving crores may have been behind the crime. The case has also raised painful questions for Manchanda’s family, who say they were not told when an unidentified body was recovered or when it was later cremated.

Wedding preparations interrupted by disappearance

Manchanda’s sister, Karishma, said the family last spoke with him at about 7.30pm on September 6. Earlier that day, he had accompanied them to Lajpat Nagar for wedding shopping. His marriage was scheduled for the following month.

“He had gone to Lajpat with us for wedding shopping. His wedding was to take place in a month. After finalising his sherwani, he left, saying he had a meeting with a former woman colleague. He had also informed his fiance and his boss about the meeting,” Karishma said.

In the hours that followed, Manchanda sent messages saying he was safe and asking his family not to worry. He also warned that his phone could be switched off. He first said he would return on Saturday, then changed the expected day of return to Thursday.

His family grew increasingly alarmed when he did not come home or speak to them directly. Karishma said one of his sisters asked him to at least appear on video and questioned why he was neither calling nor returning.

“Then my sister requested him to at least show his face. She asked why he was not calling or coming home. He never does this. We started panicking because he never does anything wrong,” she said.

The concern was heightened by Manchanda’s role within the household. His father has partial paralysis and his mother is frequently unwell, family members said. Childhood friend Rajat Jain described him as someone who had taken responsibility for his family from a young age.

“Since he was young, he had taken responsibility for his home,” Jain said.

Jain said he had known Manchanda since childhood and that the realtor had recently attended his younger brother’s wedding.

Missing-person inquiry leads to arrests

The family waited in the hope that Manchanda would return before approaching Delhi Police on September 11, five days after he vanished. The inquiry later focused on Vats, the person involved in his last known phone conversation, and Sachdeva.

Technical surveillance led police to Uttarakhand, where the couple were staying in a paying-guest accommodation. They were arrested there. During questioning, police say the two disclosed that Manchanda had been killed and that his body had been disposed of in a drain close to their Gurugram residence.

Investigators say the couple allegedly drove around with the body in a vehicle, later parked the vehicle in their society and eventually dumped the body in the drain. Police sources have indicated that the suspected motive involves a financial disagreement running into crores.

Manchanda, Vats and Sachdeva had worked together at a real-estate company in the past. Vats had been dismissed from that company over alleged financial irregularities. Police say she later worked as a freelancer and helped Manchanda with certain real-estate transactions.

Authorities are examining the precise nature of the transactions between them and the sequence of events that preceded the alleged killing. An initial review of the accused persons’ finances also found that they appeared to maintain an expensive lifestyle despite limited funds, police said.

Questions over recovery and cremation

Police say Manchanda was made to park his own car before entering Vats’s SUV. He was allegedly seated in the front passenger seat, while Vats sat behind him and Sachdeva drove. The exact method of killing has not been officially disclosed.

Forensic findings and the cause of death are expected to be clarified through the post-mortem report being obtained from Gurugram Police. Those findings may be important in addressing the family’s objections to an initial explanation that Manchanda had died by drowning.

An unidentified body was recovered from a drain on September 10 within the Badshahpur police station area of Gurugram. The family says it was not alerted despite Manchanda having been reported missing in Delhi. They say they learned of the recovery only as the Delhi Police investigation developed.

Karishma said the family was told that the body was decomposed, kept for three days and cremated on September 14. She said they were not given any of his belongings, despite being told that he had been wearing a ring and a watch.

“They said the body was decomposed and hence they kept it for three days and cremated it on September 14. I requested them to give me something of his that I could take to my mother. They gave us nothing. He was wearing a ring and a watch also, but we got nothing,” she said.

For the family, the case is now about more than reconstructing the events of September 6. They are seeking answers about how an unidentified body connected to a missing man could be recovered and cremated before they were informed. The pending forensic examination and continuing financial inquiry are likely to shape the next stage of the investigation.