Man out on parole kills mason to fake his death in Delhi’s Karawal Nagar

PTI, Dec 12, 2021, 8:29 AM IST

A 36-year-old man was arrested from northeast Delhi’s Karawal Nagar for killing a mason with a club in an attempt to fake his own death, police said on Saturday.

The Loni Border Police also arrested the man’s wife for being an accomplice in the act, they said. The accused couple has been identified as Sudesh Kumar and his wife Anupama of Shiv Vihar Colony in Karawal Nagar area.

Kumar had earlier been to jail in connection with the murder of his minor daughter in March 2018. He was released on parole during COVID pandemic under a certain rule. According to police, Kumar allegedly threw her body in an abandoned plot after killing her and filed a complaint of kidnapping with the police to mislead investigation.

But when police found inconsistencies in his testimony, he was arrested and sent to jail.

Out on parole, he decided to fake his death to avoid going back to prison for murder, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Iraj Raja told reporters. To fake his death, Kumar hired a mason and a helper for repair work in his house. He chose one of the two men who resembled him in height and built as his victim.

According to Kumar’s testimony, he called the mason, Domen Ravidas from Bihar, to his house on November 19 at 3.00 pm and made him consume liquor. After making him sufficiently sloshed by night, he hit him with the leg of a wooden cot and killed him. He later burned his face by burning paper and put his Aadhaar card inside his pocket, Raja said.

“When my wife Anupama came to know about the murder, I narrated to her my plan and asked her to identify his body as mine,” Kumar said, according to police. “After killing him, I burnt his face by burning a news paper. I carried his body on a cycle and dumped it in a deserted area.” During investigation police noticed some difference in Kumar’s height and the height of the body which was found in a vacant plot in Loni.

On the basis of information in the Aadhaar card, police reached his home in Delhi and asked his wife to identify the body and she, according to the conspiracy hatched, identified it as her husband’s.

Police arrested both and recovered the wooden leg and cycle used in murdering Ravidas and transporting his body, Raja said.