A fugitive accused of killing his wife before leaving her body in the boot of a car reunited with his old ‘girlfriend’ within days of her brutal murder, the Mail can reveal.

Pankaj Lamba, 24, was said to have contacted Madhu Pandey from his hometown in India telling her to ‘be ready to live with him’ hours after his wife Harshita Brella, 24, was murdered.

The security guard fled to his neighbourhood near Delhi three days before Ms Brella’s body was found in a Vauxhall Corsa in east London, last November.

Police believe she was strangled at her home in Corby, Northamptonshire, on November 10 before her body was abandoned in the car in Ilford the following morning.

The next day, Lamba boarded an Air India Flight to Mumbai and then flew on to Delhi before making his way to his hometown in Gurgaon where he is thought to have met up with his girlfriend Ms Pandey and her 11-year-old daughter from a past relationship.

He is believed to have had been in a relationship with Ms Pandey, whom he met in a spa where she worked as a masseuse after separating from her husband, for several years before he wed Ms Brella in 2023.

The suspected killer allegedly even supported his lover during his doomed marriage using his wife’s earnings.

Ms Brella’s sister Sonia Dabbas, who is campaigning for justice for her family, told the Mail her sister was 'well-settled, educated, beautiful.

‘Pankaj depended on her - even his girlfriend depended on her. My sister didn’t know anything about his double life.’

Harshita Brella, 24, (left) who was found dead and her husband Pankaj Lamba, also 24

Harshita Brella whose body was discovered in the boot of a car in Ilford, east London

Pankaj Lamba is believed he fled to India where he is thought to remain, being helped to evade justice by family members

Investigators suspect the alleged killer forcibly withdrew Ms Brella’s savings and transferred the money to his girlfriend to fund her life in India.

Just two months before her tragic death, Ms Brella had filed a case of domestic abuse against her husband.

In a handwritten note she accused him of sexual and physical abuse as well as financial abuse, saying he had taken over her accounts and controlled all her money.

In March, police in Northamptonshire charged Lamba with murder, rape, sexual assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.

Despite being the subject of an international manhunt, he spent several months hiding in 'plain sight' in his old neighbourhood of Gurgaon on the outskirts of the capital city.

Locals say he rented a cramped one-bedroom unit with a shared toilet in a busy building, moving in with his girlfriend and her daughter.