Photos: How ‘girl with the peacock tattoo’ killer gave police the slip for years

When Delhi Police inspector Ritesh Kumar received a phone call on the morning of June 26, he didn’t expect it to be the information he had waited for since 2011. “your target is admitted to a Gurugram hospital,” the caller said hurriedly before signing off. When Kumar reached the hospital, he didn’t get everything he had wanted. The man lying on a hospital bed was Raju Gehlot, but he was dead. Gehlot, 39, was no ordinary fugitive. Involved in one of the most high-profile cases in the Capital, he was wanted for the 2011 murder of Neetu Solanki, often referred to in crime chronicles as “the girl with the peacock tattoo”.

Updated on: Jul 05, 2019 2:07 PM IST

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Kartar Singh and Sushila, parents of Neetu Solanki, with clippings of their daughter at their home. “The killer and his victim belonged to good families, were well educated and had promising careers,” said retired additional commissioner of police Ashok Chand, who first headed the probe. What investigators didn’t know was that Gehlot had assumed a new identity - Rohan Dahiya - and was living and working for at least four years in Gurugram. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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The tall, clean-cut Gehlot had tried his hand at modelling and worked at a travel firm before joining Air India’s cabin crew. He lived with his mother and siblings in west Delhi’s Nawada village. In the nearby village Maitala, lived Neetu Solanki. She has been variously described by the people who knew her as “stylish”, “modern” and an “inspiration” for younger girls in the locality. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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For her father Kartar Singh, Neetu was a brave girl who was “made for bigger things”. In 2007, he even propelled her into politics - at 25, Solanki unsuccessfully contested the municipal elections in Matiala. Solanki got a law degree but started working at a call centre sometime in 2009. It was around then that she was introduced to Gehlot at a pub, according to police case files. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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A campaign leaflet featuring Neetu Solanki. By March 2010, the couple started living together even as Gehlot stopped reporting to work and ignored communications from his employer. According to the police, the two wanted to marry but feared family opposition. Solanki told her parents that she had found a job in Singapore. Gehlot didn’t tell his family anything. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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“He looked like a man withholding lots of secrets,” Sushila recalled of meeting Gehlot. Police said that the two worked in call centres in Mumbai then Bangalore but returned to Delhi in December 2010. Around this time, Gehlot allegedly started getting violent with Solanki over her insistence that he claim a share in his ancestral property. “At one point, Solanki set Gehlot’s documents and educational certificates on fire,” said an investigator. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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On February 10, 2011, Solanki’s father remembers noticing her bandaged head when she made a video call to her parents. The police later found that the couple had been fighting that day over money. “In the early hours of February 11, Solanki called up Gehlot’s sister over the property,” said the investigator. “This led to a fresh quarrel. Things got out of hand - Gehlot stabbed and killed her.” (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Police say that Gehlot stuffed Solanki’s body in a bag and went to New Delhi railway but got scared seeing an x-ray scanner and left the body in the station compound. The next day, her parents came to the New Delhi Railway Station police station. Their experience with police was unpleasant, at best. “The investigators tried to frame us for killing our daughter for ‘honour’,” alleged Sushila. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Details of Gehlot’s early months as a fugitive remain sketchy. He took up work at different Gurugram call centres. The last was in Sector 18. “He never ever lost his temper with anyone,’ said a colleague who remembers him as a man of few words. He acquired an Aadhaar, PAN card, and driving license as Rohan Dahiya, avoiding digital presence and rented a room as a paying guest in Gurugram’s Sector 17 a year ago. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)

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Uday Singh, the owner of the house said Gehlot never made a nuisance and showed no signs of illness, until June 17, when he called a colleague complaining of “unbearable stomach ache”. On June 21, his condition deteriorated. Only when doctors told him he was unlikely to make it did he tell colleagues his true identity. By the time the police reached, he had died. “He was so near and yet so far,” said Ashok Chand. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)