AI engineer kills woman colleague, then dies by suicide on rail tracks: police

3 min readGurgaonJul 13, 2026 12:37 PM IST

A 25-year-old woman’s body was recovered from a paying guest accommodation in Gurgaon’s Sector 55. About 60 km away, a 25-year-old man’s body was found on railway tracks near Gurgaon’s Garhi station. Both were engineers at a Gurgaon-based company. And, separate investigations into the two incidents have brought a chilling crime to light.

Insharah Ayyubi, from Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh, worked as a software engineer at Optum, an international healthcare services company. When repeated calls to her phone went unanswered, Ayyubi’s family members filed a missing complaint at Sector 56 police station.

Police traced her phone’s location to a paying-guest accommodation in Sector 55. This accommodation belonged to Shresth Malik, an artificial intelligence engineer from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and Ayyubi’s colleague. It was Malik’s body that was found on railway tracks.

At the paying-guest accommodation, neighbours reported hearing nothing unusual. When police forced the locked door open, they found Ayubi’s body in a pool of blood. Preliminary assessments indicated that she had suffered multiple stab wounds and her throat was slit. The condition of the body suggested she had been dead for nearly 24 hours. Police sources said Ayyubi moved her belongings into Malik’s room just three days before the incident.

As the investigation progressed, Gurgaon police found that the Government Railway Police on Saturday found the body of a man from railway tracks near the Garhi station. The body was identified as that of Malik from the phone and documents on him. He was initially thought to have died in an accident, but the investigation into Ayubi’s death suggested that Malik allegedly killed her and then died by suicide.

Malik’s family members had been informed that he died in a train accident and they travelled from Chhattisgarh to Gurugram to claim his body. On Sunday afternoon, when they were on their way to his paying-guest accommodation to collect his belongings, policemen from the Sector 56 police station met and informed them about the shocking findings.

According to police, Malik graduated from NIT Raipur last year and had earlier completed an internship at Samsung before joining Optum. He visited his hometown to celebrate his birthday in early June, and last spoke to his mother on Wednesday. Ayyubi graduated in computer science engineering from Jamia Millia Islamia last year.

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Motive not clear yet

Police have not found a suicide note, and said they are yet to establish a motive. “A case of murder has been registered. The probe is underway, and we will be calling the parents of both for detailed questioning,” Sector 56 police station head Inspector Manoj Kumar said.

The Government Railway Police and Sector 56 police are now conducting parallel investigations, scanning CCTV footage and digital footprints to reconstruct their final hours. The bodies have been handed over to the families after autopsy.

Abhimanyu Hazarika is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Gurgaon. He covers southern Haryana.

Education

- Post-Graduate Diploma in Print Media, Asian College of Journalism (Class of 2020)

- B.A. (Hons) Liberal Arts with a major in Political Science, Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (Class of 2019)

Professional Experience

Before joining The Indian Express, he worked with Bar & Bench (legal journalism) and Frontline magazine, where he developed experience in court reporting, legal analysis, and long-form investigative features.

Reporting Interests

His work centres on civic accountability, environmental policy, urban infrastructure and culture, crime and law enforcement, and their intersections with politics and governance in and around Gurgaon.

Recent Coverage (2025)

- Crime: Reported on the recovery of 350 kg of explosives and an AK-47 from a rented house in Faridabad, linked to the 2025 Red Fort car explosion case (November 11, 2025).

- Environmental policy: Covered protests outside a Haryana minister’s residence against a Supreme Court order that environmentalists argue could allow mining and real estate development on large parts of the Aravalli hills (December 21, 2025).

- Pollution control measures: Co-authored coverage of the Rekha Gupta government’s enforcement of vehicle restrictions at Delhi-NCR borders (December 21, 2025).

- Road safety and infrastructure: Examined response lapses in the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway hit-and-run case and ongoing investigations into high-speed road crimes in Gurugram.

- Animal welfare policy: Reported on concerns regarding the low budget allocated for stray dog sterilization by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (November 30, 2025).

- Urban culture: Featured the social media-driven popularity of a new Magnolia Bakery outlet in Gurugram (December 15, 2025).

Contact

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