Delhi woman killed, face disfigured after she asks colleague to pay back loan

Investigators then checked the CCTV footage of the cameras installed near the victim’s office and of the crime spot for clues.

Days after a 45-year-old resident of south Delhi was reported missing, her body was found in Greater Noida, police officers aware of the case said on Thursday, adding that her alleged murderer — a colleague and a close friend — has been arrested.

The woman’s body was found in Knowledge Park in Greater Noida. (Representational image)

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Police said Mohammed Zakir, 48, took the victim Pinki Devi to Knowledge Park in Greater Noida and killed her with an iron dagger, and then poured acid on her face and body to ensure that she was not identified. They said Zakir committed the crime as he had borrowed money from Devi, and she had been pressuring him to return the loan.

Giving the details of the case, police said Pinki Devi, a resident of Madangir who worked as a technical supervisor at Nizamuddin railway station, loaned ₹11 lakh to Zakir, also a technical supervisor at the station, around five years ago. Police said the victim had taken a personal loan to lend the money to Zakir, a resident of Subhash Vihar in northeast Delhi, and had been asking him to return it.

On September 8, Pinki Devi’s son dropped her off at work. When she failed to return home at her usual time of 3pm, the family began phoning her, but the calls went unanswered. The woman’s children and other family members looked for her the entire evening and night. After there was no trace of her, they approached police on September 9, and a case on charges of kidnapping was registered at Ambedkar Nagar police station.

“We received a call on the same night that a body had been found in Knowledge Park in Greater Noida and it was suspected to be Pinki’s because of documents found inside a bag next to the body,” said the victim’s sister Anita Devi.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Chandan Chowdhary said the body was recovered from Greater Noida and moved to a mortuary in Delhi for identification and post-mortem examination. The family then identified the body, and sections of murder were added to the existing FIR (first information report), police said.

During the investigation, police asked the family if the victim had any personal enmity or any problems with anyone. “It was revealed that between 2018-19, the victim loaned ₹11 lakh to one of her colleagues, Zakir, after taking a personal loan. Zakir had not returned the money due to which the victim was often under stress,” Chowdhary said.

A manhunt was launched for Zakir after his phone was found switched off. “During the inquiry, it was revealed that on September 8, the deceased left her office between 2pm-3pm. Zakir had been on leave during the week,” Chowdhary said.

Investigators then checked the CCTV footage of the cameras installed near the victim’s office and of the crime spot for clues.

“Local sources were deployed and the suspect was identified. The team conducted raids for 20 hours at more than 60 locations at Subhash Vihar. Zakir was finally arrested from a house in the area on Wednesday,” the DCP said, adding that he has confessed to the crime.

Police said the two families knew each other for many years, and would even go on vacations together. Zakir told investigators that he helped Pinki Devi get a job on compassionate grounds in 2010 after her husband’s death in 2008. “Zakir said he had taken the money from the victim and she was now pressuring him to return it, due to which he killed her,” the DCP said.

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Meanwhile, the Railways announced that it has suspended Zakir with immediate effect. “We received the FIR against the accused this morning and we have put him on suspension with immediate effect. With regard to the compensation for the victim, we will examine what needs to provided and disburse it at the earliest,” Prem Shankar Jha, executive adviser to the divisional railway manager, said.