E-Paper
Ludhiana: Friends behind vendor’s murder, held
Accused had pretended to help family trace the victim, body recovered from Buddha Nullah after questioning
Police solved the murder of a 22-year-old vendor, Nilesh Kumar, with the arrest of two of his friends.
As per the cops, the accused, Dharminder Kumar and Vikas Kumar, both hailing from Bihar, had strangulated the victim to death over a monetary dispute. After the murder, they had stuffed the body in a gunny bag and dumped it in the Buddha Nullah.
Nilesh had gone missing on September 17 and his father had filed a missing person’s complaint after two days of incessant search.
Police said the accused Dharminder had remained with the victim’s family since September 17, pretending to help in finding him.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Gurdev Singh said during the course of investigation, police got information that Nilesh was last seen with his friends Dharminder and Vikas on September 17. Following this, police started zeroing in on them.
“When we questioned the duo, they finally confessed to the crime. They told the police that Nilesh Kumar had borrowed ₹20,000 from Dharminder, but he was not returning it. When Dharminder started pressuring him, Nilesh started abusing him and refused to return the money,” said the ACP.
“Dharminder then hatched a conspiracy to kill Nilesh and involved Vikas in it. On September 17, they invited Nilesh for drinks and took him near Subhash Nagar. When Nilesh was drunk, the accused borrowed an e-rickshaw and took him to Shivpuri. Meanwhile, Nilesh gathered some consciousness and started scolding them for getting him drunk. Following this, the accused overpowered him and strangled him to death,” he added.
Following the information provided by the accused, police on Friday fished out the body from Buddha Nullah.
Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code have been added to the FIR.
The accused were produced before the court on Saturday and sent to two days’ police custody.
