New Delhi | 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.
DCP (west) Vichitra Veer said, "We are coordinating with the embassy concerned through the established channels to get confirmation on the identity of the victim of this crime. Police teams are working tirelessly to verify all the information coming from his questioning and collect linking evidence."
The police wanted the family to come to India for identification, so that the process of postmortem examination could be started.
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 clothes, one laptop and a DSLR camera probably from the hotel room, where she was staying.
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.
