These youths allegedly watched her committing suicide, but did not report the incident to the local police. Once they were sure that she was dead, they fished out her body and removed every piece of jewellery she was wearing.

They reportedly first removed the ornaments on her neck. And then cut her swollen left hand to take off her gold bangles. After dumping the body in the bushes, they went off to divide the loot among themselves.

It rained heavily that night. And as the water level rose, the river took back her body. The police recovered her body near the Okhla Barrage on July 16. But till yesterday, they had no clue to the missing valuables.

Laxmi was dressed in her bridal wear and decked in all her jewellery, when she jumped off Lok Nayak Setu near ITO 10 days ago. It was late in the afternoon, and there were very few motorists on the bridge.

So not many people saw her when she jumped off, but a few men sitting at a tea stall on the eastern bank of the river near some jhuggi clusters noticed the jewellery Laxmi was wearing as it glistened in the hot afternoon sun.

``Kam se kam ek lakh ki hogi, saare gahene (The jewellery must have been worth at least Rs 1 lakh) exclaimed some of the jhuggi dwellers,'' a eyewitness told Express Newsline. This eyewitness, who was also at the tea stall and lives in the jhuggis, requested anonymity because he feared that he would earn the wrath of the other occupants at the tea stall.

He says that no one came forward to rescue Laxmi. ``The men on the east bank waited for Laxmi to drown. They roughly marked out the spot where she had jumped. And in the evening, two of them dived in and fished out the body.''

The police would have remained unaware that a woman had jumped into the Yamuna, if it were not for one of the jhuggi dwellers who called up the control room next day.

Laxmi's husband Deepak had reported her missing on July 9. After her body was found near Okhla Barrage a week later, the police identified her as Laxmi.

They also arrested Deepak and Laxmi's mother-in-law, Sharda, under Sections 498 (A) and 306 of the Indian Penal Code following allegations by Laxmi's parents that she was being tortured for dowry.

While the area SDM is conducting a separate inquiry, the local police came to know about the jewellery after a jhuggi dweller on the eastern bank spilled the beans.

The Seemapuri police have detained two persons -- Manmohan Jaiswal and Kalia -- for questioning, but are yet to trace the missing jewellery.

About the injuries on Laxmi's hand, a police official at Seemapuri said: ``The body was highly decomposed, so we are yet to establish if there were any injuries. We are waiting for the post-mortem report.''