Delhi man who faked his death after killing wife held in Gujarat after 15 years

uring interrogation, Prashad confessed to strangling his wife after a fight over money and leaving a suicide note to mislead investigators

After spending 15 years on the run after allegedly killing his wife and faking his own death, a 40-year-old MBA graduate has been arrested by the Delhi Police from Gujarat. Police said the accused had been frequently changing cities across the state to evade arrest.

Police sent a team to Vadodara on Wednesday and arrested him from a cotton factory. (Representational image)

The Crime Branch on Friday said the man, Narottam Prashad, is accused of murdering his wife in 2010. Over the years, he worked as a manager at various factories, shops and stores, but managed to stay under the radar.

According to police, in May 2010, neighbours complained of a foul smell coming from a locked house. When police broke open the door, they found the decomposed body of a 25-year-old woman, identified as Prashad’s wife. The body bore multiple injuries, indicating she had been brutally assaulted, smothered to death, and left to rot inside the house.

Investigators also recovered a suicide note, signed by Prashad, which said he was “tired” of frequent fights with his wife and was going to kill himself. Police initially suspected he had killed his wife and then taken his own life by jumping into a nearby river.

“We looked for his body but nothing was found. We searched for months, but there was no CCTV footage or any clue. His phone was switched off and none of his family members were in touch with him. Two to three years later, a local acquaintance of Prashad’s claimed to have seen him near Delhi. The case was reopened and a court declared Prashad a ‘proclaimed offender’,” said an investigator.

The case then went cold for several years.

“We kept monitoring his family, friends and possible appearances. Finally, this month, a sub-inspector received information from a source in Gujarat who claimed to have spotted Prashad in Vadodara. The source said he had been hiding there for years under a different name and was trying to contact his family,” said an officer.

Police sent a team to Vadodara on Wednesday and arrested him from a cotton factory. During interrogation, Prashad confessed to strangling his wife after a fight over money and leaving a suicide note to mislead investigators.

DCP (Crime) Aditya Gautam said, “He was hiding in Gujarat for years, completely cut off from his family, and had taken up work as a manager at a cotton factory.”