Goa murder accused nabbed by Navi Mumbai crime branch

The GPS tracker of a stolen car revealed the story behind the death of businessman Narottam Singh Dhillon in North Goa. Two people have been arrested for his murder.

A GPS tracker of the Fortuner car that went missing from the custody of 77-year-old businessman Narottam Singh Dhillon revealed the story behind the death of Dhillon at his residence, the Horizons Azure villa at Pilerne in North Goa, in the early hours of Sunday.

Goa murder accused nabbed by Navi Mumbai crime branch

Dhillon, also known as Nims Badal, was a distant relative of the Shiromani Akali Dal president and former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. He was found dead with multiple injuries on his body in what the Goa police said was prima facie a case of smothering. Details of a couple from Mumbai, who were last seen at the villa on Saturday night, were given to the Mumbai police.

On Sunday evening, Appasaheb Patil, the head of the Navi Mumbai Crime Branch Unit I, received information that a Fortuner car stolen from a villa in Goa was coming towards Mumbai. Accordingly, the team began to trace the movement of the vehicle using its GPS tracker.

“We found the location near Pali in Raigad district and sought help from the Pali police to intercept the vehicle,” said Patil. “There were three people in the vehicle, but taking advantage of the traffic jam, one man managed to flee while a 32-year-old man and his 22-year-old female friend were nabbed.”

The arrested man was identified as Jitendra Sahu, a stock market trader from Bhopal, while the 22-year-old girl, also from Bhopal, worked in a private firm. The duo, along with their friend, identified as Kunal from Jhansi, had reached Dhillon’s villa on Saturday night at around 11 pm. “Dhillon and the accused girl were Instagram friends, and he had invited her over to his villa,” said Patil.

According to the girl’s statement, Dhillon forced himself on her and after she rebuffed him, she and her friends smothered him with a pillow. Patil said that the trio fled from the villa after robbing Dhillon of his gold chain and the gold kada on his wrist. “They took the Fortuner car that was parked outside and left at around 3.30 am on Sunday,” he added.

On Sunday, at around 10 am, the domestic staff, surprised that Dhillon had not woken up, went to check on him and found him motionless on his bed. The Fortuner car, which the accused had used to flee, was a rented vehicle, and since it had gone missing, the owner of the vehicle, who had the GPS tracking details, approached the Porvorim police in Goa.

The accused had removed the number plate of the vehicle before using it to flee from Goa. “The villa was situated in a huge property with four other villas that Dhillon owned, which were rented out to tourists,” said Patil. “Since it was such a large property, the servants chanced on Dhillon’s death late.”

Following the arrest, the duo was handed over to the Goa police on Sunday night and is being further interrogated. The Goa police have registered a case of murder and robbery against the trio.