Noida lawyer’s murder: Husband found hiding in house, arrested
Former Indian Information Service (IIS) officer murdered his 61-year-old wife, a Delhi high court lawyer, following a dispute over the sale of their house.
A 1986 batch Indian Information Service (IIS) officer, who took voluntary retirement after 12 years of service, was arrested on Monday on charges of strangling his 61-year-old wife, a Delhi high court lawyer, to death at their Sector 30 home in Noida on Sunday morning, following a dispute over the sale of the house, said senior police officers.
More baffling, however, was the fact that the suspect managed to stay at the crime scene, hidden inside a storeroom in their house, for almost 12 hours even as police teams and the dog squad ran around in circles trying to locate him. He was arrested around 2am Monday, following a late night search of the property, said police.
Also Read: Man scolds friend for beating wife in Delhi, killed
Police identified the suspect as Nitin Nath Singh, a 1986 IIS batch officer who retired in 1998 as assistant director, Indian Information Service. Police said Singh sold the home they were residing in for ₹4.5 crore and took ₹55 lakh as advance.When his wife, Renu Sinha, came to know about this, a fight broke out between the couple, and he killed her, investigators said.
Noida deputy commissioner of police Harish Chander said, “The suspect retired from IIS and later worked with an American firm, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), and other such major organisations. The couple has a son who is settled with his wife in America and has not visited home since 2015.”
“The suspect told us that on Sunday around 10am, Sinha got to know about the sale of the house and a fight ensued between them. During the heated argument, he strangled his wife to death in the washroom. Singh’s fingerprints were found on her neck,” Chander said.
Police said after killing Sinha, Singh could not leave home as people kept visiting their home that day. Around Sunday noon, three people, including the realty broker, visited the home, and he showed them the first floor while convincing them that the ground floor, where his wife was lying dead, had the same layout as the first.
Noida assistant commissioner of Police-1 Rajneesh Kumar said, “Later, when his phone started ringing, he took the call and lied to the caller that he was at Lodhi Road in Delhi. Subsequently, he switched off his mobile phone and hid in the storeroom of the house.”
Around 3.15pm, Sinha’s brother came looking for her, and when no one answered the doorbell, he alerted the police. Police reached the spot and broke open the door to find Sinha lying dead in the washroom and her husband missing.
Police formed four teams to search for Singh, but despite heavy police deployment and a dog squad inspection, investigators had no clue that Singh was hiding in the storeroom on the first floor. Police said a lookout notice was issued to nab him before he flew out of the city after they got to know that he had a British citizenship.
“The CCTV camera at the couple’s home was not working since the past two months, so police scanned the neighbour’s CCTV footage and came to know that Singh never left home. Around 2am Monday, we called Sinha’s brother to the home again to search the entire house in his presence. We found Singh hiding in the storeroom on the first floor. Sinha’s mobile phone, his passport, and his mobile phone were recovered from his possession. It was revealed that he planned to leave the country after consulting his lawyer on Monday morning.” said ACP Kumar.