Police have arrested a couple in the Manipur’s Jiribam district in connection with the murder of a 38-year-old woman in Tamil Nadu’s Guduvanchery, officers said on Sunday, nearly a month after her dismembered body was found in a suitcase on a Delhi-bound train.HT ImagePolice identified the accused as Manik Uddin Laskar, 22, of Assam’s Cachar district, and his wife, Bhagabati Majhi, alias Ayesha Begum, 21, of Odisha’s Kendujhar district.“A joint team of Tamil Nadu Police, assisted by Manipur Police, arrested Manik on the inter-village road between Lalpani and Rasidpur in Manipur’s Jiribam district on August 28. Co-accused Bhagabati was arrested the following day from Kashimpur village in the same district,” a Manipur Police statement said.Manipur Police added that the couple were being handed over to the station house officer of the T8 Guduvanchery police station in Tamil Nadu for further formalities.Chennai Government Railway Police superintendent of police P Rajan said on Sunday that the couple would be produced before a magistrate in Manipur before being brought to Chennai on transit warrants for further investigation.A TN police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said the crime appeared to have stemmed from an alleged illicit relationship between Manik and the victim.On August 5, passengers on a Delhi-bound express train from Tamil Nadu noticed a foul smell emanating from a red trolley suitcase in an unreserved compartment after the train reached Agra. The Government Railway Police were alerted, and they recovered the woman’s headless, dismembered body from the suitcase, police said.Tamil Nadu railway police at Puratchi Thalaivar Dr M G Ramachandran Central Railway Station were informed of the incident and, along with Agra railway police, launched a detailed investigation, police said.After reviewing more than 350 surveillance camera recordings, police identified a couple carrying the suitcase at Chennai Central railway station. Meanwhile, the victim’s son had filed a missing-person complaint at Guduvanchery police station.A team led by Rajan from Guduvanchery police raided a rented house on Mosque Street in Guduvanchery, where police recovered additional body parts from a large cooking vessel. Forensic examination and DNA analysis identified the victim as Hayathun Nisha, a native of Odisha.“The two suspects were staying at the victim’s residence and had known her for several years. Guduvanchery police later converted the missing-person case into a murder case and were on the lookout for those involved in the crime and the motive behind it,” Rajan said.The investigation revealed that, after placing the red trolley suitcase on the Tamil Nadu Express on August 3, the couple fled to Manipur, officers said.