Two held for killing man during robbery, third such murder between January 5 and 15

Two men were arrested for killing a 36-year-old man in central Delhi’s Paharganj for resisting their attempts to rob him last week, police said on Tuesday.

Two men were arrested for killing a 36-year-old man in central Delhi’s Paharganj for resisting their attempts to rob him last week, police said on Tuesday.

HT Image

Investigators arrested 27-year-old Upender Pratap and 18-year-old Sunny

“Both worked as waiters at weddings and parties and were unsatisfied with what they earned. So, they decided to rob people to earn extra money,” said MS Randhawa, deputy commissioner of police (central district).

On the night of January 14, they allegedly purchased a knife each and set out to find people to rob. “On the footpath of the Paharganj Railway flyover, they came across a man urinating on the roadside. They repeatedly stabbed him before fleeing with his phone and wallet,” said the DCP.

A rickshaw-puller passing by witnessed the crime but since he did not have a mobile phone, he only alerted a passerby, who in turn made a police call. The case was reported at Kamla Market police station.

The victim was identified by the police by his first name, Deepak, and a resident of New Seelampur. “His identity card revealed he was a waiter in the Bhopal Shatabdi Express,” said the officer.

The killers robbed him of his phone and a wallet that contained ₹250.

The police were initially clueless, but they were certain that the murder was a fallout of a robbery. So, they waited for Deepak’s mobile phone to be switched on, which it eventually did on Friday. It turned out that the phone had exchanged multiple hands before being sold to a labourer.

The police thereafter followed the chain to reach the suspects. The DCP said that Sunny was first nabbed from Jamuna Bazar on Friday and at his instance Pratap too was nabbed. “They had thrown the two knives in the bushes near New Delhi railway station. They have been recovered,” said the officer.

Between January 5 and January 15, at least three persons have been killed in Delhi for resisting robberies.

As per data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, at least 24 persons were killed during robberies in Delhi in 2018. In the same period, the combined murder figure in 18 other cities with a population of two million stood at 10.