Nalasopara double murder: Extortion for drugs possible motive, say police

Mumbai: Since May 17, when two people were found dead following an altercation inside a locked tea stall in Nalasopara, the reason behind the crime had been elusive

Mumbai: Since May 17, when two people were found dead following an altercation inside a locked tea stall in Nalasopara, the reason behind the crime had been elusive. However, the latest findings have prompted the Achole police to suspect that extortion by the accused, a drug addict, could be the motive.

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The police have found several money transactions between the victim and the accused — including a transfer of ₹10,000 on the day of the murder.

On May 17, Raunak Tiwari, 22, Kishan Jha, 19, and the accused Shubham Dubey, 20, had met at Dubey’s tea stall named Namaste in Gala Nagar market in Nalasopara East.

There was a fight between them. Tiwari was found dead, Jha died of his injuries in a hospital, and Dubey has been admitted to KEM hospital with a cracked skull.

According to Chandrakant Sarode, senior police inspector of Achole police station, Tiwari had been regularly sending money to Dubey.

The police suspect that Dubey, who is a drug addict, could have been demanding money from Tiwari to buy drugs.

“We found that Tiwari had sent amounts of ₹500 to ₹100 several times. The money he sent was from his account but his father, who owns a shop, had posted the QR code of this account for his customers to pay using UPI,” said Sarode.

Tiwari’s father Arvind told the police that he was initially unaware of the monetary transactions between his son and Dubey. However, on May 17, when he checked Tiwari’s phone, he found that ₹10,000 had been transferred to Dubey.

“When the police reached the crime spot last Wednesday, they had seized three mobile phones, but they were damaged in the scuffle,” said Sarode.

About the incident, police said that Dubey attacked his friends and then banged his head against the wall to make it look like a fight between the three of them. The police on Tuesday booked Dubey for the double murder.

Meanwhile, the police are still awaiting Dubey to be discharged from the KEM hospital to find out the motive behind the murders as he has suffered a crack in his skull. “The doctors have asked us to wait to record Dubey’s statement,” said Sarode.

Sarode said that Dubey had initially told the police that the three of them were attacked by a fourth person but when the police scanned the CCTV footages of the surrounding areas, they found that no one had entered or exited the tea stall during the time of the incident.

On Thursday evening, the police officers scanned the CCTV recordings of the area and found that at 3.15pm, Jha and Tiwari entered the tea stall. At 3.30pm, Jha was seen leaving the stall through the back door to get refreshments. Jha was gone for only eight minutes.

The police assume that there might have been some altercation between Tiwari and Dubey and Jha might have been sent by Dubey to get refreshments while he attacked Tiwari.

Officers added that when Jha returned and saw his injured friend, he possibly attacked Dubey, who might have retaliated using a blunt weapon such as an iron rod, which was kept in the stall. Dubey might have then slipped out of the back door alerting the locals about the incident.