‘Backstabber’ in cop cuffs within six hours of the murder

A Karol Bagh haberdashery businessman and part-time property dealer was stabbed twice in the back by a former neighbour looking to exact revenge. The only way to smoke the businessman out of his house, he surmised, was to shatter the businessman’s car windows.

When 50-year-old Ishwar lal came out to assess the damage, Manu — lurking in the shadows — sprung on him and stabbed him repeatedly till he collapsed. Ishwar tried to take cover in the neighbourhood temple but was overpowered soon enough. Bleeding profusely, he still managed to crawl his way back home only to haemorrhage soon after.

Ishwar’s family rushed him to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. Police was soon intimated by the businessman’s family at 7 am on Monday. They managed to get their hands on the CCTV footage, which showed a frantic Ishwar lal fending off his attacker. Investigators managed to decode the numberplate of the getaway vehicle.

While the hunt was on to nab the murderer, police was told about a car with the same plates having rammed into a divider on Rohtak Road. Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police, Central district, rushed a squad to the spot and handcuffed the accused.

Within six hours of the murder, Manu was taken in for questioning to face the glare of the interrogation room spotlight. Ishwar lal, he told police, was his neighbour in 2011 when the two fell out over a niggling issue. Since then Manu had been bristling with revenge. Even though his family shifted to Inderpuri in 2012, they still owned a shop in Raigarpura area.

Moreover, Ishwar lal’s family members also told police Manu often threatened him of dire consequences after a spat over a property.