Financial dispute behind Lalita Park murder, 3 held

Four days after the nude body of advocate Subhash Gupta was found in his Lalita Park office in east Delhi, the Delhi Police have arrested three people for the murder. Gupta, a 57-year-old senior advocate, was the former president of the Delhi tax bar association.

Four days after the nude body of advocate Subhash Gupta was found in his Lalita Park office in east Delhi, the Delhi Police have arrested three people for the murder. Gupta, a 57-year-old senior advocate, was the former president of the Delhi tax bar association.

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Police said the plan to rob and kill Gupta was hatched by one of the accused, Mohammad Wasim, with whom the lawyer had a dispute over money. The other two accused have been identified as Dharmender alias Dharmee, 21, and Vijay Singh, 21, said deputy commissioner of police (east) Prabhakar.

Wasim, 22, did an engineering course from an institute in Dehradun while Singh works in a call centre company.

Gupta’s hands, feet and ankles were tied with cellophane and he was gagged with the same material. Some valuables such as his wallet, gold chain and a gold ring, mobile phone and a R6 lakh worth diamond jewellery set had been found missing, said Prabhakar.

“Several teams were constituted to investigate the case. A detailed examination of the murder spot indicated that the killers were known to Gupta as there were no signs of forced entry. We prepared a list of people who were Gupta’s personal, professional and social contacts. When we questioned his employees, we got to know that some people used to visit Gupta during late evenings. We also got to know that one of those people had visited Gupta the evening he was murdered,” said Prabhakar.

Further investigation helped the police trace the suspects, who had called Gupta that day around the same time. The three were arrested and they confessed to their crime during interrogation, Prabhakar added.

“Their interrogation also revealed that Wasim and Gupta had a financial dispute. That night the three arrived at his office. Wasim and Dharmender had alcohol with Gupta while Singh stood outside the office building as guard. The two then hit Gupta on his nose and face. They pinned him down due to which he lost consciousness and then they tied him with cellophane. Gupta died due to suffocation as he had been gagged,” Prabhakar said.