Delhi Police gain access to car’s GPS, track down man on the run after murder

Police said their control room received a call on Thursday morning regarding a dead body in a hotel room in Mahipalpur

A 32-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing his friend in a hotel room in Mahipalpur, southwest Delhi, on Thursday, police officers said, adding that police narrowed down on the suspect using the clone of a GPS-tracking app, which allowed them to trace his movements.

When police reached the spot, they found the victim in the bathroom of a room on the third floor. (Representational image)

According to deputy commissioner of police (south west) Rohit Meena, the victim was identified as Rohit Kumar, 28, and the accused was identified as Mandeep Kumar — both residents of Punjab and drivers by profession. The officer said Singh allegedly murdered Kumar as he could not pay the ₹50,000 he owed the victim.

Police said their control room received a call on Thursday morning regarding a dead body in a hotel room in Mahipalpur. When police reached the spot, they found the victim in the bathroom of a room on the third floor.

“It appeared that the man had been strangled,” said an investigator aware of the case. A case under section 103 (1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered.

During the probe, the hotel staff revealed that the victim had come to stay with a person who identified himself as Mandeep Singh around 1.30am on Thursday. However, the CCTV footage revealed that at 3.20am, Singh left the hotel. When the staff went to check the room in the morning, they found Kumar dead. Singh had submitted his own Aadhaar card to book the room.

CCTV footage revealed that the two arrived in a car that bore a Punjab registration number and belonged to Kumar. Police said that after the murder, Singh fled in Kumar’s car.

“We contacted their families. Kumar’s family said there was a GPS tracker in the car,” the officer said, adding that FASTag entry revealed that the car never left Delhi.

Police then contacted the GPS tracker company. “The company shared a clone app of the tracking system and the team started tracking the live location of the car,” the officer said.

The car was finally traced to Karol Bagh, from where Singh was arrested. “He confessed to the crime and said that the two had come from Punjab to drop a passenger to the airport, after which they decided to stay at a hotel before heading back. He said he owed ₹50,000 to the victim and could not pay up. On the way to Delhi, the victim kept asking him for money, which was when the accused decided to kill him,” the officer said.