Auto-rickshaw driver killed; wife, boyfriend held

PTI, Nov 10, 2021, 8:56 PM IST

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New Delhi: A 62-year-old man was allegedly killed by his wife and her boyfriend, police said Wednesday, adding the two accused have been arrested.

The incident took place on November 2 in a secluded place near Mangolpuri Industrial area phase I, they said.

The accused, Urmila, had got married to Raj Kumar, an auto-rickshaw driver, against her will when she was in her twenties, she said.

She was unhappy with her marriage and was regularly beaten up and tortured by him, she has alleged.

The couple has four children together, police said.

On the day of the incident, Urmila met her 28-year-old boyfriend, Sajim Khan.

Then, Khan boarded Kumar’s rickshaw as a passenger to go to Mangolpuri Industrial area phase I and asked him to stop at a secluded place.

He then fired at Kumar’s back with a country-made pistol that he had bought to eliminate him, a senior police officer said.

According to police, Urmila was fed up with his harsh treatment.

Khan hatched a conspiracy to kill him since she no longer wanted to live with her husband and wanted to marry Khan, who is a hawker dealing in scrap in Karol Bagh area, they said.

As per their plan, Khan kept a track of Kumar’s movements for several weeks.

He got to know that he comes to Karol Bagh in the evening every day to pick up his last passenger for the day, officials said.

After killing him, Khan left for Malkaganj where he stayed at a rented room and fled from Delhi, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Outer, Parvinder Singh said that on November 2, a police team found the body of an autorickshaw driver lying on the road near his vehicle in Mangolpuri Industrial Area Phase-I.

On the spot, his wallet, mobile phone and money were found intact.

The victim had one gunshot injury on the body but there were no eyewitnesses, he said.

During the investigation, Kumar had gone from Karol Bagh in his vehicle.

Following that, hundreds of CCTV cameras were scanned on the possible route from Karol Bagh to Mangolpuri Industrial Area Phase-I and the suspect, Khan, who hails from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh was identified, the officer said.

“Khan was found to be in regular touch with the deceased’s wife and further investigation revealed that Khan was in a relationship with Urmila for past many years and due to him, there was regular quarrel between Urmila and her husband,” Singh said.

Police said raids were conducted at Khan’s native place in Amroha district but he was not found.

Later, with the help of technical surveillance, the accused was traced in Muradabad in Uttar Pradesh from where he was nabbed.

“During questioning, Khan confessed to his crime and disclosed that he met the deceased’s wife in 2015 and they eventually got into a relationship. Over the past few months, she had been continuously complaining about her husband’s behaviour. So, he planned to eliminate him and marry Urmila,” the DCP said.

Police said the duo hatched a conspiracy and waited for the right opportunity to kill Kumar.

But they did not get time to execute their plan as Kumar shifted his family from Karol Bagh to Aman Vihar as he became suspicious about his wife’s activities.