Couple held for killing and dismembering Uber driver in India

Indian police have arrested a couple suspected of murdering an Uber driver in order to steal his car. Police said the couple had admited giving Ram Govind tea laced with a sedative after he drove them to their home in Ghaziabad, a satellite city of New Delhi. They then strangled him, dismembered his body and dumped it in a drain.

"The motivation was primarily to make some easy money by selling the vehicle," Vijayanta Arya, a deputy commissioner in Delhi's police service, told Reuters. "It wasn't a premeditated murder, they only decided when they got in the vehicle."

A spokesman for Uber India said Govind was registered as a driver on the platform, but that the incident did not take place during an Uber trip. "We are deeply saddened to hear of this tragic incident and express our deepest condolences to Ram Govind's family," the spokesman said.

"We stand ready to assist law enforcement authorities in their ongoing investigations." The couple will appear in court on Feb. 8, Arya said. (Reporting by Alasdair Pal Editing by Robin Pomeroy)