Sikkim police have arrested a man from his home in Bihar on charges of killing a woman at a Gangtok hotel in December last year.

Siva Prasad Yellasiri, the superintendent of east Sikkim, told reporters on Wednesday that the police had been on the lookout for Kumar Gyaneswar Singh, 32, a resident of Chapra district in Bihar, after the body of a woman he had checked in with was found at the hotel on December 30.

Yellasiri said a team from Sadar police station in Gangtok had gone to Bihar in the first week of January in search of Singh, but he had remained elusive despite visiting some of his known places in Chapra. Late last month, another police team again visited the district and was able to arrest Singh from his home in Masumganj on Sunday with the help of Bihar police.

“He was brought to Gangtok at 8pm yesterday (Monday) on a transit remand. We sought 14 days’ police custody since we need to interrogate him further,” said the SP.

According to the investigators, Singh had reached Sikkim with his lover Rekha Singh, who is also from Chapra district, on December 27 and checked into a hotel
at Deorali in Gangtok. After sharing drinks and dinner in the hotel room, the lovers allegedly had a quarrel over Singh’s affairs. While Singh was a bachelor, Rekha was married with two children.

The quarrel, Yellasiri said, led to a scuffle between the two, which resulted in Rekha receiving a severe injury on her abdomen. She is suspected to have died in her sleep
because of the injury. When Singh found out her death the following morning, he locked the room from outside and fled.

Singh was charged under Section 302 of the IPC for murder and Section 201 of the IPC for causing disappearance of evidence of offence.