LUCKNOW, Dec. 4 -- A late-night drunken scuffle ended with the death of a 37-year-old woman, whose body was later found seated upright near a drain in Gomti Nagar's Vishal Khand-2 on Monday morning. Police on Wednesday arrested two men, both 24 years old, who reportedly confessed to staging the body to make it appear alive in an attempt to mislead people and delay the woman's identification. They said the deceased, Rekha Verma, had left her Aliganj residence on Sunday morning and was found dead the next day. Her body was found leaning against a wall near the home of a former IAS officer. With no phone or identification card on her, the case triggered widespread curiosity before investigators unravelled the sequence of events. According to DCP East Shashank Singh, the chain of events began around 8 pm on November 30 (Saturday) when e-rickshaw driver Devendra Singh met Verma near a liquor shop in Nawabpurwa. She reportedly sought a lift, after which he allegedly proposed physical relations in exchange for alcohol. He then called his friend Suraj Pal, who invited them to his makeshift hut in Vishal Khand-2. Inside the hut, the trio consumed liquor. As Rekha grew heavily intoxicated, she allegedly began shouting and demanding money, leading to a heated argument, he added. "Angered by the commotion, both men pushed her. She fell backwards, hitting her head on a wooden plank in the hut," said ACP Gomti Nagar Brij Narayan Singh. When she became unresponsive and later appeared lifeless, the duo panicked. Rather than informing the police, the men chose to cover up the incident. Gomti Nagar SHO B.C. Tiwari said the duo waited till around 3 am - a detail verified through CCTV footage - before placing the body in Suraj's e-rickshaw and taking it to the deserted lane. "They propped the body upright against a boundary wall so that anyone passing by would think that she was sitting. For hours, morning walkers assumed that she was simply resting," the SHO said. CCTV footage showing a suspicious e-rickshaw entering the lane at 3 am became a turning point in the case. Manual surveillance and informer inputs helped trace Devendra and Suraj, who were arrested on Wednesday morning from Vinit Khand's vegetable market. Police have recovered two e-rickshaws, the woman's footwear from where the body was discarded, and a photocopy of her Aadhaar card from the hut. The FIR initially registered under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) now also includes Section 238 (intentionally destroying or concealing evidence). Postmortem findings regarding the cause of death are inconclusive, but police say the scuffle and subsequent fall were central to the incident that cost Verma her life. Rekha Verma's brother, who wished not to be named, however, alleged that she was murdered by her live-in partner, one Ravi of Nishatganj, and his friends. He stated that after he filed a police complaint against Ravi about eight months ago, Rekha went to the police and told them that she was married to Ravi. Responding to the brother's allegations, the DCP said the woman was not in a live-in relationship with Ravi. On what she did after leaving home around 11 am on Sunday, he said she would often leave and come home at odd hours....