After eight month probe, 3 held for murdering friend in Faridabad

According to police, Dinesh was murdered by his friends in the Nayapul area of Palla on the night of January 29. His body, bearing strangulation marks and a severely smashed head, was recovered on January 31.

Eight month after the body was discovered from the jungles near Tajpur village,three accused were arrested for allegedly murdering their friend following a petty dispute in Faridabad, police said on Monday.

The misidentification of the body by a family resulted in an inordinate delay in cracking the case, said police.

The misidentification of the body by a family resulted in an inordinate delay in cracking the case, they added.

The deceased, identified as Dinesh Kumar alias Deepu, 23, was a resident of Green Field colony in Faridabad.

According to police, Dinesh was murdered by his friends in the Nayapul area of Palla on the night of January 29. His body, bearing strangulation marks and a severely smashed head, was recovered on January 31.

The arrested suspects were identified as – Sohail Khan, 23, of Daya Nagar, Azad Khan, 28, of Sehatpur and Shiv Shankar, 24, of Faridabad. The crime branch arrested Shankar on August 27 and the two others on August 30.

Yashpal Yadav, public relations officer of Faridabad police said the investigation was delayed due to an initial misidentification of the body by a family. The body was mistakenly identified as that of Deepak Kumar, an auto rickshaw driver, who was reported missing from Sarai area from December 24, 2024.

“A murder case was registered against unidentified suspects at Bhupani police station on February 1 after the body was recovered. Deepak’s family approached police on February 4 and ascertained the identity,” he said.

“On basis of the initial identification, the case was transferred from Bhupani police station to Sarai Khwaja police station where a missing report of Deepak was already registered,” he said.

With no leads, the case was handed over to the DLF crime branch while police awaited DNA report.

“The case took a turn when Shankar, in inebriated condition, confessed the murder to a friend. The friend then alerted Dinesh’s family,” he said.

Investigators said that Dinesh already had three theft cases registered against him due to which his family never approached police to get a missing case registered.

Shankar was detained and interrogated, following which he revealed the involvement of Sohail and Azad in the crime. Sohail was already in jail for possession of an illegal firearm. He was taken on remand when the murder case was finally cracked.

Police said it surfaced that Deepak had assaulted Sohail in an intoxicated state following which the trio retaliated.

The officer said that Azad pressed Deepak’s neck by placing his feet on it while Sohail kept hitting his head with a brick repeatedly. “After murder, they had loaded the body in an auto rickshaw and dumped it in the jungles near Tajpur,” he said.