Swiss woman murder accused tried to lure other foreign women too with gemstones: Cops
New Delhi (PTI): The 33-year-old Delhi man arrested for allegedly killing a Swiss woman here had promised precious gemstones and offered astrology tricks to other foreign women too to befriend them, police sources said on Thursday.
Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Delhi's Janakpuri, told interrogators he was in touch with multiple foreign women apart from Nina Berger, whose body was found near an MCD-run school on October 20 with limbs tied with a chain.
Singh's father has a business of gemstones and astrology in west Delhi. He is currently believed to be in Paris.
The police suspect Gurpreet Singh learned astrology from his father and used it to lure foreign women. He used the same trick to befriend Berger and lure her to come to India, they suspect.
She came to India on October 11 and stayed in two different hotels in west Delhi. "In the first, she stayed till October 16. Then she shifted to another hotel, where we believe, she stayed before being killed by Gurpreet on October 18. The decomposed body of Berger was recovered from near a school in Tilak Nagar on October 20," a police officer said.
He said Singh's chats with other foreign women have been retrieved from his two mobile phones, but he has deleted his chats with Berger. He has visited foreign countries, including Switzerland, multiple times, the police said.
"There are chats recovered from his mobile phone where he has talked with several women about gemstones and astrology. It is suspect he would lure them for friendship by offering them precious stones or using astrology tricks," the officer said.
The police said they have recovered Berger's iPhone too, but have not been able to unlock it. They are taking the help of cyber experts.
Singh's family owns multiple properties in various parts of Delhi but the trail of huge cash recovered from his house is yet to be investigated.
The police has managed to reach out to the family of Berger in Zurich, via the Embassy of Switzerland. But they said they cannot come to India. Her body has been kept at a mortuary in a west Delhi hospital.
The police wanted the family to come to India for identification, so that the process of postmortem examination could be started. But now the police wait for an NOC (no-objection certificate) from the Swiss Embassy.
Since the identification of the body is a crucial part in investigation, the police plan to take the help of DNA and biometric process.
From the hotel where Berger stayed, the police have recovered a trolley bag carrying articles which are believed to be belonging to her.
The DNA match of the dead body could be done with the recovered articles, an official said.
Berger used to work with a law firm in Switzerland.
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Mere breakup not enough for abetment to suicide: Delhi HC
New Delhi (PTI): Merely breaking up may not amount to instigation for a case of abetment of suicide under the criminal law, the Delhi High Court has said.
Justice Manoj Jain made the observation while dealing with a bail plea by a man accused of abetting the suicide of his former partner, who hanged herself five days after his marriage to another woman.
Granting bail to the accused, the court observed that the instigation should be of such a nature that leaves the deceased with no option but to commit suicide.
It said only a trial would establish whether the deceased's "extreme step" was on account of provocation, instigation, "merely on account of her being hyper-sensitive girl" or for some other reason.
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In the present case, the court noted, there was no dying declaration, and the parties were in a relationship for around eight years, during which there was no complaint from the deceased.
The court observed there was a considerable time gap between the date when the parties stopped talking and the date of the suicide.
"Apparently, it seems to be a case of a broken relationship and quite possibly, the deceased, having come to know that the applicant has got married to someone else, has chosen to finish herself," the court said in the order passed on February 24.
"Though broken relationship and heartbreaks have become common these days, mere breaking-up of relationship may not per se constitute instigation so as to make it to be a case of abetment under Section 108 BNS (abetment of suicide)," the court order read.
According to the father of the deceased, his daughter had been trapped by the accused, who pressured her to convert to his religion for marriage, and it was under such pressure that his daughter committed suicide by hanging herself with a chunni in October 2025.
The accused was arrested in November 2025.
The court observed that, according to the woman's friends, she was upset, and they never claimed anything on conversion. The accused had stopped talking to her from February 2025 onwards, it said.
According to the order, the man was let out on bail on a personal bond and surety bond of Rs 25,000 each.
The accused submitted that the parties were in a cordial relationship for around eight years, but the woman's parents were against the relationship since they belonged to different religions.
He alleged that it was her parents who forced her to sever the relationship.
