25-year-old woman kidnapped by two men in a car, strangled to death

A 25-year-old woman, who worked as an accountant at a medicine wholesale shop in Chandni Chowk, was abducted in a car allegedly by two men -- one of them was a friend of hers -- and driven around the city for nearly four hours before being strangled to death and her body dumped at an isolated spot in outer Delhi’s Alipur area on January 19, police said.

On Saturday, the police claimed to have solved the kidnapping and murder case after arresting the two suspects and recovering the Santro car in which the murder allegedly took place. The entire crime was planned by the woman’s 24-year-old friend, Ankit (single name), because of a financial dispute he had with her, the police said. The police have no revealed the identity of the woman.

According to the police, she wanted to avail of a loan of ₹2 lakh for some personal work and asked Ankit to help her. Around two months ago, Ankit took ₹47,000 from her for helping her get the loan. However, he neither got her the loan nor returned the money, despite her repeated demands, a senior police officer said.

“As the woman was pressuring Ankit to return her money and was threatening to file a police case, he planned to kill her and included his friend, Nitesh (single name) in his plan,” the officer said, adding that the woman knew Ankit for the past four years as they worked in the same wholesale shop.

Around a year ago, Ankit started working for a different firm, in Chandni Chowk itself, where Nitesh was also employed. Both men belong to Holambi Kalan near Narela in outer Delhi.

On January 19, the woman left her workplace for her home in Jahangirpuri. But when she did not reach home and her cellphone remained switched off, her family members filed a missing person complaint. A kidnapping case was registered at north Delhi’s Kotwali police station, said deputy commissioner of police (north) Anto Alphonse.

While the Kotwali police team was conducting searches, her body was found on January 20 by the Alipur police after they were informed about an unidentified body by a passerby. The body was preserved at the Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospial mortuary for identification purposes.

On January 22, the Kotwali police learnt about the body in the mortuary and showed it to the missing woman’s parents, who identified it as that of their daughter.

“We added Indian Penal Code’s Section 302 (murder) in the case and began our probe. The call details of the woman’s cellphone were analysed. Through technical surveillance and human intelligence, we caught her friend Ankit who confessed to the crime. His interrogation led to the arrest of Nitesh,” said the officer.

About the sequence of the events, the officer said Ankit urged the woman to meet him near the Peeragarhi Metro station on the pretext of resolving their dispute.

“Ankit was waiting in the car with Nitesh. He asked her to get in and drove around for around four hours on the pretext of discussing their issue. Around 10pm, the duo strangled her using her phone charger wire and threw the body in Alipur. They took away her phone and purse containing her ID papers and ₹3,400 cash. All items have been recovered,” the officer said.