NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday pulled up Gurgaon Police over its investigation into the murder of 31-year-old Delhi-based real estate professional Yuvraj Singh Manchanda , saying the probe was "botched" after the victim's body was cremated without being identified.




Judicial magistrate First Class Rahul Jain of Saket court made the oral observation while hearing a fresh compliance report submitted by Gurgaon Police in connection with the case.




"You have botched up the investigation having already cremated the body," the court said.




Senior advocate Amit Prasad, appearing for Manchanda's sister, told the court that the cause of death mentioned in the postmortem report handed over by Gurgaon Police was " asphyxia following ante mortem drowning", whereas the findings of the investigation submitted by Delhi Police showed that the victim died after being shot by the accused.




"They (the accused) disclosed that they had murdered Yuvraj Singh Manchanda by firing two rounds around his neck and thereafter, in order to conceal evidence and dispose of the dead body, had taken the body to a drain/nala situated near their house in Gurgaon and thrown the same therein," the report submitted by Delhi Police read.




He submitted that the authorities failed to upload the relevant details on ZIPNET, which is integrated with CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems), within time, resulting in the victim's family being unable to identify him before cremation.




The Zonal Integrated Police Network (ZIPNET) is a specialised real-time online platform used by law enforcement agencies to share crime and criminal data.




The court noted that Delhi Police uploaded Manchanda's details, including his photograph, on ZIPNET on September 11, when an FIR was registered in Delhi, two days after Gurgaon Police recovered an unidentified body from a drain in Badshahpur.




However, Gurgaon Police significantly delayed uploading the relevant details on the integrated police database.




The specifics regarding recovery of the body were put up on September 16, two days after it had already been cremated without identification. Subsequently, the body was identified as that of Manchanda.




Manchanda's sister had approached the court, raising concerns over the manner in which the unidentified body was handled and alleging that important forensic material and personal belongings may have been lost or compromised during the cremation.




The court subsequently called for a fresh compliance report from Gurgaon Police.




The petitioner has sought preservation and production of records relating to the discovery, recovery and identification of the body, post-mortem proceedings, DNA and biological samples, forensic material, photographs and videos, and records concerning the cremation.




She has also sought details of articles recovered from the body and their chain of custody, ZIPNET records and communication logs, besides digital communications between police officials and the family.




According to police, Manchanda was allegedly shot inside a car in Gurgaon after he met his former colleague Anya Vats and her partner Sanyam Sachdeva.




Police have alleged that the accused kept his body in the car for two days before dumping it in a drain in Badshahpur on September 8. The body was recovered a day later.




Vats and Sachdeva, who worked with Manchanda until 2022, are primary accused in the case.




Police said the duo fled to Vrindavan after the murder and later travelled to Kainchi Dham in Uttarakhand, where they were arrested.



(With inputs from PTI)