71-year-old boubd, gagged in east Delhi shop dies, 1 held

Police said the suspect, identified as Amandeep Singh, demanded ₹1 crore as ransom from the deceased’s family for his safe release

A 41-year-old boutique shop owner in east Delhi’s Krishna Nagar was arrested for allegedly murdering a 71-year-old property dealer by tying his limbs and gagging him with a cloth after confining him inside his shop on Monday, the Delhi Police said on Tuesday. Police said the suspect, identified as Amandeep Singh, demanded ₹1 crore as ransom from the deceased’s family for his safe release. Amandeep was allegedly involved in a financial dispute with the victim, Kuldeep, they said.

Amandeep was allegedly involved in a financial dispute with the victim, Kuldeep, police said. (File)

“Amandeep had helped Kuldeep in a successful property deal, and he was promised a ₹16 lakh commission in return. However, despite repeated demands, Kuldeep was not paying Amandeep the money. He was angry with Kuldeep over the matter,” said a senior police officer probing the case.

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara), Rohit Meena, said that around 2.30 pm on Monday, the Jagatpuri police station received a call and was told about the alleged abduction of Kuldeep and the subsequent demand for a ransom.

According to the police, Kuldeep’s daughter Meenu Saluja had made the call. “A police team met her, and she said that her father had been missing since 10 am. Saluja said she received a ransom call from her father’s phone and the caller demanded ₹1 crore for his release. A case was registered, and six teams started working on it,” the DCP said.

During the probe, DCP Meena said, the team started tracing Kuldeep’s movement by scanning CCTV cameras, beginning from his office in Anarkali Colony (South). “We scanned nearly 70 cameras in a radius of 4km and found that Kuldeep had parked his scooter outside a boutique shop in Krishna Nagar. He was seen entering the shop at 10.19 am,” the officer added.

“Amandeep Singh ran the boutique in a rented shop. He was also seen outside the shop. Around 2 pm, he was seen locking the shop and leaving on Kuldeep’s scooter. We thought that Kuldeep might be inside and hence broke open the lock. Our teams went inside and found Kuldeep lying unconscious on the floor. His limbs and mouth were tied and he was blindfolded. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead,” said Meena.

According to the DCP, the teams started looking for Amandeep as he appeared to be the prime suspect in the case and had gone missing. Through technical and manual investigation, Amandeep’s location was traced to Rohtak. “Our team went to Rohtak and arrested Amandeep. He confessed to the crime. Amandeep threw Kuldeep’s phone in a drain and parked his scooter near a park in Krishna Nagar,” added Meena.