Man tied, killed, stuffed in bedbox in south Delhi

The body of a cook, who worked for the advocate general of Meghalaya, was found tied up in a bed box in his house in Delhi. The victim's cousin, who worked as an office boy for the advocate general, was found tied to a chair and stabbed in his back. The police have arrested two suspects, one of whom was a former employee of the advocate general. The suspects were seeking revenge after being dismissed from their jobs.

The body of a man was found tied up inside the bed box in a house belonging to Amit Kumar, the advocate general of Meghalaya, in south Delhi’s Jangpura Extension on Monday night, the police said.

Relatives of the deceased gather outside the home in Jangpura Extension, on Tuesday (Sanjeev Verma/HT)

The deceased worked as a cook for the advocate general.

Moreover, the deceased’s cousin, who works as an office boy for Kumar, was found tied to a chair and stabbed in his back, police said. Kumar’s son, who ran out of the house seeking help, was left with a fracture in his leg.

A murder case was registered at Nizamuddin police station.

Police, meanwhile, have arrested the two suspects involved in the murder, with one of them being a former employee of Amit Kumar. The suspects were identified as Jirjis Kazmi (19) and Aman Tiwari (20). Police said Kumar had recently dismissed Kazmi from his job as an office boy and that he was seeking revenge over this.

“Raids were conducted across Delhi and the two were arrested from different places,” said special commissioner of police (crime branch) Ravindra Yadav.

Kumar and his wife were in Hyderabad over the past few days while his daughter too was out of station. While three members of the family were away, those who were at home on Monday included Kumar’s son Aditya (23), his 84-year-old father Ashok Kumar, a retired IAS officer from Bihar, the cook Kamal Paswan (25) and Kamal’s cousin Deepak Paswan who worked as an office boy for Kumar. A caretaker for Kumar’s bedridden father was also present during the incident, whose identity is yet to be revealed.

While Kamal was hired about three years ago, Deepak was hired just last week, said Kumar.

“Kamal got married on May 26,” said his sister-in-law Baby. The deceased belonged to Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, where his wife and family lives.

On Monday night, Kamal served food to Kumar’s father and son around 8.45pm, Kumar said. He added that Kamal, however, did not appear to stick to his daily routine of retiring to his residential quarters thereafter. When his son Aditya and the caregiver Deepak noticed Kamal’s phone lying in the second-floor kitchen, the duo walked to the third floor to search for him, Kumar said, adding that they found the door seemingly locked from the inside.

When they knocked the door, two men suddenly swung it open, Kumar said. One of them allegedly waved a gun at Aditya, who ran out of the building to call for help – in the process injuring his leg, said Kumar. “The two suspects ran after my son, but he managed to escape,” said Kumar.

Kritivas Sardar, a domestic help working for the family residing on the first floor, said that he saw Aditya running out. “He was limping and looked frightened,” said Sardar who returned with Aditya and some other people to the third floor to take on the assailants.

“On our return, we found Deepak tied to a chair and his mouth gagged with cotton and cloth. He was stabbed in his back,” said Sardar.

Kumar said that an injured Deepak told him in the hospital that the suspects told him that they had sent Kamal to “parlok” (heaven). A police team, which landed at the crime spot on Monday night, were unable to find Kamal immediately.

“At the hospital, the police told us that it was Kamal who plotted the crime. They blamed us for helping Kamal escape even though we kept pleading with them to find him urgently,” said Kamal’s brother-in-law Shankar Paswan.

Kumar said that the police carried out a thorough search of the building on Monday night but could not find Kamal. On Tuesday morning, Shankar said, his family launched a protest against the police near the crime scene.

Kumar said that on Tuesday morning, his employees again searched the entire building. When they searched a room on the terrace, they found Kamal’s body tied up inside a bed box. “Foul smell coming from the bed box drew the attention of the search team,” said Sardar.

Speaking about the murder, special CP Ravindra Yadav said, “First, they strangulated and murdered Kamal with an iron box cable and dumped his body inside the bed box. They then attacked Deepak with knife and tied him up. After that, they tried to break open the money locker with bricks.”