Surajkund murder: Accused sent to judicial custody

A local court sent a man accused of murdering a woman in a five star hotel earlier this year to judicial custody on Thursday.

A local court sent a man accused of murdering a woman in a five star hotel earlier this year to judicial custody on Thursday.

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The police had arrested Amit Chauhan from Ballabgarh on Tuesday and had produced him before a court today. Chauhan was arrested on charges of killing Neetu Rai (35) at Rajhans Hotel in Surajkund in August.

SHO Surajkund Jitesh Malhotra said, "The accused confessed during the interrogation that he strangulated Neetu Rai and killed her at the hotel as she pressurised him to return the money he had taken from her relatives in Banaras."

The SHO said Chauhan had accompaned Rai to her home in Banaras and promised to deliver motorcycles at lesser price.

"He collected about Rs 70 lakh from people known to the victim but when he failed to get the motorcycles, the people started pressuring Rai to get their money back," he added.

The police said Chauhan planned to kill Rai when she insisted of getting the money back. According to the police, he then killed her in the hotel room on the intervening night of August 8 and 9 earlier this year.

The police added that Chauhan was hiding in Mumbai after the murder.

The hotel staff had received a call in the morning of August 9 informing them that Rai's cell phone was not responding.

The staff went to check in the room where they found her body.

The police had put Chauhan's mobile phone on surveillance and they traced his whereabouts in Mumbai. A team was rushed there but the accused dodged the police and fled to Ballabgarh, from where the police nabbed him on Tuesday.