Killer hides body in flat, visits it for 6 days to dupe neighbours: Delhi police

After killing Devdas, Rawat stuffed his body in a sack, changed his bloodstained clothes, spent the night in Devdas’s flat and left in the morning

A 24-year-old man murdered a 55-year-old man at his flat in southwest Delhi on October 21, hid the body there, and then visited the house daily for the next six days to keep up appearances and dupe the victim’s neighbours into thinking he was still alive, police said on Saturday, adding that the murder came to light when the victim’s body was discovered on October 30, and that the accused has been arrested.

The accused, identified as Uchit Rawat alias Kartik, was arrested from Bora Bhondla village in Etah district, Uttar Pradesh on Friday, police said. (HT Photo)

The accused, identified as Uchit Rawat alias Kartik, was arrested from Bora Bhondla village in Etah district, Uttar Pradesh on Friday, police said. Rawat had worked and lived at a temple in Raj Nagar for the past three years, police said. The victim, identified as Devdas (single name), lived alone in a flat in Raj Nagar in Palam Colony.

“Rawat said that he committed the murder out of animosity because the victim had humiliated and slapped him two-three times in the recent past. On the night of the crime, when Rawat visited Devdas for some work, the latter verbally abused him under the influence of alcohol. Filled with rage, Rawat stabbed Devdas to death with a chopper the latter kept under his pillow,” said deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Surendra Choudhary.

After killing Devdas, Rawat stuffed his body in a sack, changed his bloodstained clothes, spent the night in Devdas’s flat and left in the morning, police said. He returned to the victim’s flat later to switch on the water pump, which also supplied water to the other flats in the multi-storey building, police said. This ensured that none of the victim’s neighbours had any cause for complaints and did not approach the victim’s flat, and the murder did not come to light, police said. Rawat returned to Devdas’s flat every day for the next six days to switch on the water pump, police said.

On Wednesday, the victim’s neighbours smelled a foul odour emanating from his flat. They called the Palam Village police station after which a police team along with the fire brigade arrived and broke open a window to enter the flat. They found that the flat was ransacked and one of the two rooms was locked from the outside. They broke open the door and found a sack on the floor which was emitting the smell. They opened the sack and found the victim’s highly decomposed body, the DCP said.

“The deceased was identified as Devdas, who was the owner of the flat. He was unmarried but had been living with a woman for some time. The woman had travelled to Andhra Pradesh three weeks ago. We registered a case of murder at the Palam Village police station and began an investigation,” he added.

Police learnt that a man named Rawat, whom people also referred to as “Panditji”, regularly visited Devdas to take care of him while the latter’s woman companion was away. Police also learnt that Rawat was missing from the temple where he lived and worked at since October 27.

“Rawat became the prime suspect in the case. We learnt that he had fled to his home town in Etah. A team raided his house in Bora Bhondla village under Jalesar tehsil and arrested Rawat. He confessed to the crime,” added DCP Choudhary.