Baker brothers in Delhi held for killing burglar who was blackmailing them

The alleged burglar, 20-year-old Abhishek, had sold two stolen laptops dirt cheap to the bakery owners over a year ago and since then, he was allegedly blackmailing and extorting money from them by threatening to report them to the police for consciously buying stolen property

An unidentified body recovered from north Delhi’s Inderlok on Friday has turned out to be that of a burglar who was killed for allegedly trying to extort money from two brothers who run a bakery, the police said on Monday after arresting five persons in connection with the murder.

The bakery owners have claimed that they had already paid ₹1 lakh to Abhishek over the past one-and-a-half years. They decided to kill him when he insisted on being paid an additional ₹20,000 on Thursday. (Representational image)

The alleged burglar, 20-year-old Abhishek, had sold two stolen laptops dirt cheap to the bakery owners over a year ago and since then, he was allegedly blackmailing and extorting money from them by threatening to report them to the police for consciously buying stolen property, said Sagar Singh Kalsi, deputy commissioner of police (north).

“The bakery owners have claimed that they had already paid ₹1 lakh to Abhishek over the past one-and-a-half years. They decided to kill him when he insisted on being paid an additional ₹20,000 on Thursday,” said the DCP.

Abhishek’s body was found bound by ropes and wrapped in a bedsheet in Tikona Park in Inderlok on Friday. Some cash, bidis and a facemask were among the items retrieved from near the body, but none of that could immediately establish his identity.

He was eventually identified when his wife reported him missing. She told the police that on Thursday he accompanied her to a local clinic from where he asked her to return home alone. Abhishek himself never came back.

The police used technical surveillance to gauge his movement, but it was local enquiry which eventually pointed to Abhishek’s dispute with the bakers.

“We visited the bakery to find a bedsheet and some polythene covers, similar to those used to cover the body, there. We interrogated the two shopkeepers, Afjal Ansari and Savjal Ansari,” said the DCP.

The Ansari brothers eventually admitted to the murder and also led the police to their associates Rasid Ansari, Mohd Abrar and Mohd Israfil.

Subsequent investigations revealed that Abhishek was allegedly involved in at least 20 cases of theft and burglary, the DCP said.

In one of those burglaries, around one-and-a-half years ago, he made off with two laptops which he sold to the baker brothers for ₹5,000. “But after that, be began blackmailing the brothers to give him money, else he would tip-off the police that they were buying stolen goods,” the DCP said.

On Thursday, Abhishek again visited the bakery to demand ₹20,000 more. “The suspects first took him to a room adjoining the bakery and tried to convince him that they were not in a position to pay him anymore. But when Abhishek remained adamant, they strangled him to death, bound his body with ropes, wrapped it in a bedsheet, loaded it on their scooter and took it away to dump it in Tikona Park,” the DCP said.

They threw his mobile phone in the Yamuna from which it was later retrieved with the help of divers.