Nuh murder: Police recover remains of doctor’s body from Haridwar, second suspect arrested

Investigators said the prime suspect killed the doctor to avoid repaying ₹23 lakh borrowed from him over the last few years.

Police on Tuesday said they have recovered the remains of a body from Haridwar that had been dumped in the Ganga after a murder in Punhana, Nuh, on August 28.

The victim was identified as Dr Vinod Goyal, 59, a resident of Punhana. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Investigators said a crime branch team from Nuh travelled to Haridwar, where they learnt that local police had pulled out a decomposed body from the river last week. Family members, who accompanied the team, identified it through clothes and a finger ring recovered from the body.

The victim was identified as Dr Vinod Goyal, 59, a resident of Punhana who owned a hospital and ultrasound centre in the town. He was allegedly strangled to death by his close friend and former ward councillor Deepak Kumar, alias Deepak Rajasthani, 42, inside the latter’s Hyundai Venue car near his utensil factory. Investigators said Kumar killed him to avoid repaying ₹23 lakh borrowed from the doctor over the last few years.

Kumar, the prime accused, had a debt of at least ₹1.5 crore which includes the loan taken from Goyal and those taken from banks.

Krishan Kumar, public relations officer of Nuh police, said Gupta was arrested on Monday based on Kumar’s disclosures during police remand. “Haridwar police had recovered Goyal’s partially decomposed body last week near their district border. Since it was unidentified, they cremated it after 72 hours as per procedure but preserved DNA samples,” he said.

Police said the remains have been handed to the family and blood samples of relatives collected for DNA matching. CCTV footage of the victim going to meet Kumar and of Kumar’s movements on the Punhana–Haridwar route has also been secured.