It all started after a man in his late 30s sold off his mobile phone without deleting some "inappropriate pictures" of his former lover, who by now was married with a child. In early May, Meerut-based Shubham Kumar, sold his phone to one Anuj Prajapati, who after finding the pictures on the phone shared them and they went viral on social media, the Times of India reported on Monday.

After the woman, who was settled in Meerut, found out, she, along with her child, jumped into Gangnahar canal in Muzaffarnagar. Divers were able to save the 3-year-old boy, but the woman died. The police were later able to identify her as the same woman whose pictures were being circulated on the internet.

Before taking the extreme step, the woman had made a call from a "kiosk owner's mobile phone," Khatauli SHO Harisharan Sharma said. Police tracked down the mobile number, which belonged to her husband, and verified her identity.

However, by then, Prajapati had also been killed, allegedly by Shubham and his friends in Meerut's Kankerkhera on Thursday. "The woman approached her ex-lover after she came across her pictures on social media. Angered by the development, Shubham and his friends killed Prajapati," TOI quoted SHO Kankerkher Anand Prakash Mishra as saying.

The police was able to identify the suspects, based on CCTV footage and a mobile recovered from the crime scene, and a hunt was launched soon after. Finally, on Saturday the Meerut police caught the suspects after an encounter. "Five suspects on two motorcycles opened fire at a police team when the latter asked them to stop for security checks on Saturday. Two suspects had sustained bullet wounds in the leg in retalitatory fire," SSP Saharanpur Dines Kumar said.