Man thrown offNDMC quarters at Jor Bagh, 2 held

Delhi Police arrest two men for abducting, assaulting, and murdering a man over debt, pushing him off a building. Accused identified as financiers.

The Delhi Police have arrested two men for allegedly abducting a man who owed them money, holding him captive and assaulting him for three days, and then murdering him by pushing him off the eighth floor of a New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) residential complex at Jor Bagh.

The accused were identified as Dharmesh Malik and Ahmed Salman, two financiers who loaned ₹8 lakh to Chandan Kumar, the victim. (File)

The accused were identified as Dharmesh Malik and Ahmed Salman, two financiers who loaned ₹8 lakh to Chandan Kumar, the victim.

Police said the murder was discovered late on April 20, when Kumar’s body was found at the NDMC quarters near Paryawaran Bhawan. They said the 10-storey building has no guards, though several families live there.

The flat from where Kumar was pushed out is vacant, police said.

HT reached out to NDMC, but officials there did not comment on how the accused entered the quarters with the victim.

Officers probing the case said that once Kumar’s identity was established, police teams questioned his friends, who said that the deceased was being harassed by the financiers for weeks.

“The victim had borrowed money from Malik and Salman... After a few months, the two pressured Kumar to repay the money with interest, but he told them he had no money,” additional commissioner of police (crime) Sanjay Bhatia said.

Investigating the incident, a team led by deputy commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Paweriya and ACP (crime) Pankaj Arora discovered that Malik and Salman abducted Kumar and a friend from a small hotel at Sarai Kale Khan on April 17. According to the friend — police did not reveal his name — he and Kumar were taken to different locations in Delhi over the next three days and were constantly beaten.

“Kumar expressed his inability to pay the money, and then was taken to the NDMC quarters on the afternoon of April 20. The accused broke into a vacant flat on the eighth floor, and pushed Kumar from the balcony, before fleeing,” said a senior police officer probing the case, on condition of anonymity.

Police said the friend claimed that he was let go before Kumar was murdered.

After the names of Malik and Salman came up in connection with Kumar, police began searching for them, but the two could not be traced.

“On Wednesday night, informers told us that the men were hiding at Indirapuram in Ghaziabad and were trying to leave the city. A team was sent there, and the duo were found hiding in an apartment,” said Bhatia, adding that the two were arrested the same night.