NAINITAL: When Haldwani police found the body of a young businessman, Ankit Chauhan, 32, inside his car on July 15, it was taken to be a case of death due to asphyxiation.

However, as cops started unravelling the case, it turned out to be a well-planned murder executed by his girlfriend in a manner that would give any Bollywood potboiler a run for its money.The body of Chauhan, a resident of Rambagh Colony, Rampur Road, was found on the backseat of his car near Teenpani railway crossing.

Police found that carbon monoxide was emanating from the car's AC, which they suspected to have led to the businessman's death.

However, the post-mortem revealed snake bites on both of Chauhan's legs and the cause of death, it turned out, was poisoning by snake venom.Cops then began probing further and examined nearby CCTV cameras and Chauhan's call details, which is when Mahi Arya's name came to the fore.

Mahi and Chauhan were alleged to be dating each other.

Meanwhile, Chauhan's sister Isha filed a report at Haldwani police station, accusing Mahi and her friend Deep Kandpal of murdering Chauhan.

Examining the call details of Mahi further led the cops to a snake charmer Ramesh Nath, who then revealed the grisly murder plot during interrogation.The snake charmer told the police that Mahi had approached him and sought his help in getting Chauhan bitten by a snake to make the killing appear as an accident.

She paid him Rs 10,000 for the job, he claimed, adding that Mahi was upset with Chauhan's constant interference in her life and now wanted to get rid of him.According to the snake charmer, Mahi and all the other accused have fled to Nepal.

Nainital SSP Pankaj Bhatt said that two teams have been formed to trace the accused.