2 men hired for a paint job kill shopkeeper for ₹40,000 in phone wallet, caught

Delhi’s south-east district police arrested the two suspects after tracking the victim’s mobile phone they had stolen to access his PayTM wallet

NEW DELHI: Two men contracted by a shopkeeper in south Delhi’s Jamia Nagar to give his house and shop a fresh coat of paint killed him late on Monday and stole his mobile phone, police said on Tuesday after tracking down the phone, and the two suspects 20km away in Paharganj.

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The two men, arrested within hours of the crime, told investigators that they saw last week that the shopkeeper had a balance of ₹40,000 in his online wallet PayTM while he was making a payment using the mobile application and decided to rob him.

Esha Pandey, deputy commissioner of police (south-east district) said Islam Ahmad’s murder was reported a little after Monday midnight.

“Our police team reached the shop in Jamia Nagar where Islam Ahmad was found dead with stab injuries on his neck. He was rushed to the Trauma Centre where doctors declared him brought dead on arrival. We registered a case of murder and began the probe,” Pandey said.

Ahmad has a shop in the Shaheen Bagh area and sells shoes.

Police said Islam Ahmad’s son told investigators that he suspected the two painters could be involved in his father’s murder. Since the man’s mobile phone was missing, it was first put under surveillance.

“The technical surveillance of the victim’s phone showed its location in Paharganj. Based on this, our team searched over 180 hotels and guest houses in Paharganj. Finally, we found them along with the victim’s phone near a guest house in the area. They were taken into custody,” a police officer who investigated the case said.

During interrogation, the two accused, Mehraj Alam(32) and Taufiq Kalam(21), both residents of Muzzafarpur in Bihar, told investigators that they were hired by Ahmad for the paint job. “While painting Ahmad’s shop, they saw that he had ₹40,000 balance in his PayTM account. They then planned the robbery and came to his shop on Monday night. They stabbed him multiple times and stole the phone,” the officer said.

Police said they are trying to ascertain if the two men were involved in any other crime earlier.