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Punjab businessman killed after molestation attempt, accused tell cops
The 77-year-old businessman was found murdered in a villa in Goa, where he has been living in Goa since 2016 and running a hospitality business which involved leasing out villas on rent to tourists. His body was found by a staffer at around 8 am on Sunday morning
Punjab businessman, Narottam ‘Nims’ Singh Dhillon, who was found dead in his Goa villa, had befriended his attackers via Instagram, a few weeks prior and later invited them to visit him at his Goa villa, Goa police official said.
The Goa police took custody of two accused identified as Jitendra Ramchandra Sahu, 32, and Nitu Shankar Rahuja, 22, who were arrested by the Crime Branch of Navi Mumbai in connection with the murder. A third accused is said to be on the run.
While Sahu is a stock marketing trader, Rahuja works in a private firm. The duo hails from Bhopal. The third friend identified as Kunal from Jhansi is on the run.
Sahu and Rahuja, who were arrested in Maharashtra after they fled in a stolen Fortuner SUV, were brought to Goa after securing a transit remand and produced before the judicial magistrate first class and remanded to ten-day police custody.
The rent-a-car that the accused fled in was fitted with a GPS tracker, as per norms in Goa, which helped the police track the culprits. The culprits had removed the number plate. The duo have been booked under section 302 (murder) and 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.
“The accused have been remanded to ten-day custody. We are interrogating them in order to ascertain the motive,” a police official said, adding, “The accused have revealed that Dhillon was murdered by Nitu and her friends after he allegedly tried to force himself on her late on Saturday night.”
Dhillon, 77, was found murdered in a villa in Goa that he owned on Sunday morning. Dhillon originally hails from Badal village. He has been living in Goa since 2016 and running a hospitality business which involved leasing out villas on rent to tourists. His body was found by a staffer at around 8 am on Sunday morning, following which they alerted the police.
“The couple arrived in Goa on the invitation of Dhillon. Prima facie the accused have said that they killed him by smothering during a scuffle. We will interrogate the accused further to understand the motive,” a police official, privy to the investigation, said.
Arrested in Raigad
On Sunday evening, Navi Mumbai Crime Branch Unit I head, police inspector Appasaheb Patil received information from Goa police that a Fortuner car stolen from the premises of a businessman’s villa in Goa was coming towards Mumbai and accordingly, the team started to trace the movement of the vehicle using its GPS tracker.
The cops started tracking the vehicle and traced it to the Raigad district of Maharashtra.
“We found the location near Pali in Raigad district and sought help from Pali police to intercept the vehicle. There were three people in the vehicle, but taking advantage of the traffic jam, one man managed to flee while a 32-year-old man and his 22-year-old female friend were nabbed,” Patil said.
“The trio had reached Dhillon’s villa on Saturday night at around 11 pm, he added.
“After the murder, the trio fled the villa after robbing Dhillon of a gold chain and a gold ‘kada’ that he was wearing. They took the Fortuner car that was parked outside and left at around 3.30 am on Sunday,” Patil added. The couple are believed to have exited the villa from a backdoor.
Police have recovered CCTV footage from the villa which showed the couple arriving the previous night and were welcomed into the villa by Dhillon.
The post-mortem was conducted on Monday after Dhillon’s son arrived from Pune. The post-mortem report has attributed the death to smothering, police said.
The police have also recovered the missing items including Dhillon’s mobile phone, gold chain and bracelet.
