New Delhi, May 19 -- It started with a horrific discovery on the morning of May 4, 2018. Delhi Police were alerted to a child's severed head floating in a ditch in Mianwali Nagar, near Peera Garhi in west Delhi. In subsequent searches, investigators then found the victim's torso, and limbs inside a bag with a knife. The police lodged an FIR stating the deceased was aged around 15 or 16. The victim remained unidentified. Investigators concluded she was murdered and her body cut into five pieces. Locals pointed fingers at a group of men from the area. They claimed a woman-recently seen working nearby-had been killed. That woman was 19-year-old Soni Kumar alias Chhoti. Unable to trace her, police on May 17 arrested her employer, Manjeet Karketa, who ran a placement agency. Three of his friends-Rakesh Singh, Gauri, and Shalu-were soon picked up on charges of murder and destruction of evidence. The motive, the police said, was that the woman had demanded her pending wages. But six months later, the case turned on its heels. In November 2018, Soni-presumed dead-walked into her parents' home in Ranchi. She told them she had quit Manjeet's job and had been living at an NGO in Gurugram. Though the investigation was thoroughly discredited, the accused were not released. Manjeet and Rakesh were eventually freed. But Gauri and Shalu remained in jail. In April 2025, while hearing Manjeet's bail plea, Delhi Police told a court that forensic reports were still awaited and his role in the murder was under investigation. But the court granted bail, noting no motive or solid evidence had emerged. "The investigation shocks the conscience of this court," the judge said. "The dead body remains unidentified. Not just the investigator, but senior police officers failed to supervise the probe diligently," the court observed. The case against Manjeet and his friends spans five chargesheets, including four supplementary ones, filed over seven years. The chargesheets contained disclosure statements of locals spotting Manjeet with a woman, a CCTV grab showing the backs of two men walking, among other details. During investigation, police recorded statements of three locals who became main witnesses in the case - as per chargesheets accessed by HT. In the first chargesheet, filed on August 8, 2018, police cited three local witnesses who claimed to have seen Manjeet with a young woman matching the victim's description. The police also traced Soni's family and her brother identified the body as his sister's, saying they hadn't been in contact for months. Police added CCTV footage of two men, supposedly Manjeet and Rakesh, walking away from the crime scene. A rod, knife, and mesh allegedly bearing blood traces were recovered from Manjeet's Jwalapuri home. But everything changed when Soni was found alive on November 23. Her brother admitted to having "thought" the body was hers. Yet, in January 2019-two months after her return -police filed a supplementary chargesheet still naming Manjeet and his friends as Soni's killers. That document included a report from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) stating that the blood found at Manjeet's home "matched" the body. Police also cited phone location data placing Manjeet in the area. The second supplementary chargesheet, filed three months later, finally admitted Soni was alive. She told police she had been moved across homes. Her brother said he was confused at the time of identification. This chargesheet revised the victim's identity to "unknown". The case drifted during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Rakesh was released in 2021 to decongest jails. In February 2023, police filed a third supplementary chargesheet, detailing Shalu's arrest. They claimed Manjeet confessed to the murder and led police to Shalu. Witnesses said Manjeet and Gauri were seen with the victim before her death....