New Delhi: It was late evening on August 27 and the sun was setting when beat officer, constable Baljinder, received a call from Gaurav, the owner of a finance service company in northwest Delhi's Adarsh Nagar, who told him, “Mujhe lagta hai meri ek employee problem main hai, aap jaake check kijiye (I think one of my employees is in trouble, please go and check).” Little did the police know at the time that Gaurav was the one who had put her in trouble.
There was no sign of struggle at the crime scene, which helped police establish that it was a pre-planned murder, the officer added. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Baljinder, who was on leave that day, called his beat partner, constable Dharmender, who immediately reached the spot — an office on the third floor. He saw an injured woman and called head constable Pawan, the operator of Station House Officer (SHO) Shailendra Singh Jhaakar, and they all reached the office within minutes.
The crime scene
At the office, they saw a young woman wearing a pair of jeans with a red top lying lifeless on her left side on the floor; her throat slit. Her mobile was on the floor and her purse was on the side as well. There were tables, chairs, and landline phones and it looked like 20-30 employees worked in this office, a police officer who was among the first respondents said, when he described the crime scene. "The first motive that's thought of is usually robbery but that was ruled out as soon as we saw the crime scene. Everything in the office was intact. The woman's few pieces of jewellery on her body and her phone were there too," the officer said.
There was no sign of struggle at the crime scene, which helped police establish that it was a pre-planned murder, the officer added.
Meanwhile, Gaurav, 34, owner of the company and resident of Loni, reached the office with a colleague and said he was in Karol Bagh for work. He got to know something was wrong because he was on a call with the woman when he heard her screaming. "He said that he had called her at 6:19 pm regarding last-minute checks at the office before she closed and left, when he first heard a man ask the woman about a ‘Sandeep’. He then heard her screaming suddenly. He said that then he sent someone from the ground floor of the building to check and the person told him that she had been attacked," the officer said.
The investigation
The first thing that the police team did was check CCTV footage from the restaurant opposite the office. In that, they saw two men — wearing face masks, with one of them carrying a backpack — enter the building around 6:18 pm. These men then became the first suspects in the case. "We had installed 25 cameras at Azadpur Chowk just 10 days before, because it's an important stretch where accidents also take place. This web of cameras was then scanned and we could see that there were, in fact, three men, not two. One of them was waiting on the street below the office and the two had gone inside and come back within two minutes," the officer said.
Meanwhile, Gaurav and his associate were asked to come to the police station for statements on the incident and details about the victim, who was working for him for the last three years.
An investigator said that when Gaurav was asked whether the woman was in any relationship or if he knew someone could harm her, he said no. “He told us that she lives in Bhalswa Dairy and a few days ago, her sister had an altercation with a few men and they tried to harm the family members so maybe those people could have done it.”
After the team inspected the crime spot thoroughly, the police team took the woman's bag along with them and checked her belongings. This bag check was made after Gaurav told the police about the alleged attack on the woman's family. “Inside her bag, we saw a mangal sutra (a wedding thread) in a clear plastic bag and a photo on the back of which 'Anuj' was written. The photo was actually of Gaurav. Since he maintained that his name was Gaurav, we questioned him. He said the photo was his. And so, we asked him his name and then he said, ‘I am also called Anuj,’” the officer said.
A turning point
This was the turning point for the investigators.
According to the investigators, Gaurav, a married man, didn't cooperate with the information until he was informed that eight other girls who work in the team and his wife will be called to the police station to ask what they knew about the victim. "At this point, he became edgy and admitted that he had a relationship with her for two-and-a-half years and she was pressuring him for marriage. But he continued to claim that he doesn't know who killed her," the officer said.
Within 10-15minutes of the police's well-crafted questioning tactics, he gave in and admitted to committing the murder he planned about four days ago. He admitted that he decided to kill her because he couldn't take the pressure anymore.
Deputy commissioner of police (north-west) Usha Rangnani said that Gaurav discussed the matter with an employee, Durga, who said he'll take care of the killing and demanded ₹200,000 for the task. Durga contacted his associate, Pankaj, who hired Ghaziabad-based criminals Shyam alias Paudi, Sumit, and Sharif alias Monu. Durga made Gaurav meet all of them.
The planning and execution
"A day before executing the murder, they all met on Friday at Yamuna Pushta in Sonia Vihar where Durga handed ₹100,000 to the Ghaziabad-based criminals. They planned to kill her late in the evening because she is alone at the time before closing the office," the DCP said.
An investigator they had, in fact, tried to kill the woman on August 26, but there were people in the building and they couldn't.
"Another startling fact that came out was that the victim was to take the day off on Saturday, but Gaurav insisted that she work so he could execute his plan. When we checked the call detail records, we found that he had first called her at 6:14 pm, but at that time, the killers hadn't arrived. He called her again at 6:18 pm and stayed on the call till they killed her and left. He wanted to make sure she was dead," the officer said.
With the help of technical surveillance, four other accused Pankaj, Durga, Shyam, and Sumit were arrested while teams are still looking for the absconding Sharif. "While Sumit remained in the street, the other two went to the office on the third floor. Sharif was the one who had slit her throat," the officer said.
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