A grudge from jail makes gang kill woman in Delhi, frame 3 for crime

The arrested have been identified as Dinesh Prasad (25), Saurabh Bhardwaj (19), Rahimuudin (25) and Chanderkesh (30). The fifth suspect is Dhirender.

Police have arrested four men for the gangrape and murder of a 24-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a gunny bag in southeast Delhi’s Sarita Vihar last Wednesday. A fifth suspect is on the run.

Police have arrested four men for the gangrape and murder of a 24-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a gunny bag in southeast Delhi’s Sarita Vihar last Wednesday. (AP)

The arrested have been identified as Dinesh Prasad (25), Saurabh Bhardwaj (19), Rahimuudin (25) and Chanderkesh (30). The fifth suspect is Dhirender.

Police said Prasad was acquainted with the woman and had murdered her to frame three other men with whom he had a grudge. Before killing her, they had forced her to write a note implicating the three men, police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said police got a call around 3.40pm last Wednesday alerting them to the body found in a sack near the railway tracks in Sarita Vihar. The DCP on Monday also said sections of gang-rape was added to the FIR after questioning the suspects, although the autopsy is yet to confirm the sexual assault.

“There were injury marks on her neck. A mobile phone and a handwritten note were recovered from the pocket of her jeans. The woman was identified as a resident of Ambedkar Nagar and her family told us that she went missing on February 25,” Biswal said.

The DCP said during the probe, her handwriting samples were used to confirm that the note was written by her.

“In the note, the woman held three men responsible in case something happened to her. All three men were rounded up for questioning. We found that the woman had phoned them on the day she went missing. However, on a detailed inspection of call records and GPS locations of their phones, it was found that they were not with the woman since the time she went missing,” the officer said.

DCP Biswal said a scrutiny of the call records also revealed that the three men had never been in touch with her prior to that. Also, the trio kept denying that they knew the woman.

“This arose our suspicion and a team was formed to comb through Ambedkar Nagar, Sarita Vihar and Sangam Vihar to detain more suspects. We also scanned the CCTV footage. This led to the arrest of Prasad, previously involved in nine cases of snatching and thefts,” officer said.

“Prasad initially denied any links with the woman, but once confronted with surveillance data, he broke down and admitted to killing her,” the officer said.

Prasad allegedly told police that last year, when he was in jail for a theft case, he met Dhirender. “Prasad and Dhirender developed an enmity with a prisoner named Bunty (single name). After being released from the jail, Prasad and Dhirender planned to teach Bunty a lesson. They also wanted to grab a property in Sangam Vihar, which Bunty owned.

“Prasad said he roped in his friend Bhardwaj. He purchased a new phone and a SIM card. Last Monday, he called the woman, whom he had known for a few years, and promised her a job. When the woman reached Prasad’s house, he, Dhirender and Bhardwaj assaulted her and forced her to write a letter naming Bunty’s brother Aarush and two of his friends,” the DCP said.

Police said the three strangled her to death on Tuesday morning. They also used the woman’s phone and called Aarush a few times to frame him for her murder, police said. “Prasad deleted his number from the woman’s phone and threw away his phone. The three rented a Honda City online and also hired two men — Rahimuudin and Chanderkesh (30)— to dispose of the body. They stuffed the woman’s body in the sack and put in the boot of the rented car,” Biswal said.

The five then consumed alcohol on Tuesday night before dumping the body near the railway line,” the officer said.

The woman’s father said while searching for his daughter, they found Prasad’s number in her diary and called on it. “The man who answered identified himself as Dinesh. When I asked if he knew my daughter, he said he had met her 20 days ago in connection with a job,” he said.