Over possessiveness of 22-year-old Shubham for Simaran could have triggered Najafgarh murder as the accused had allegedly shot dead the girl over her closeness with other male friends, police said on Saturday.
Besides, the primary investigation reveals that Shubham is an aggressive and egoist person and was allegedly under the influence of alcohol at the time of incident, they added.
Shubham told police he had a heated argument with the minor girl over her friendship with Nitin, they added. Shubham had been angry with the girl for the last few days. On December 20, when he had gone to drop the girl at her house with Yogesh in the latter’s Mercedes, he saw Nitin standing close to the girl’s mother, police said.
He was upset that the girl’s family was in touch with her friend and shot at her with Yogesh’s pistol, they said.
On the day of the murder, her mother had called her around 7 pm, asking her to return home soon as it was getting late. She assured her that she would be back soon.
Another police officer, privy to the probe, said, “Simran had received around 25 calls on her mobile phone on the day she was murdered. Out of the 25 calls, the maximum calls were made by Nitin. Right from the time Shubham accompanied by Yogesh and Simran had lunch at a restaurant in Rajouri Garden on Tuesday, Nitin was allegedly incessantly calling Simran. This left Shubham furious.”
“The accused, Shubham, thought like a criminal. Right from cutting his hair and trimming his beard, Shubham resorted to all measures to avoid getting identified by the police. On the day Shubham shot Simran, he first went to Delhi Cantonment by bus. From thereon, he took a bus to Haridwar.
After staying in Haridwar for a day, he returned to Delhi and started staying at a friend’s place in Tughlakabad,” a senior police officer told The Pioneer.
Shubham was arrested by the Delhi police on December 23 from Saket. He, along with Yogesh, whose pistol he had used to kill Simran, was produced in the court which sent them to a three-day police remand.
According to Surender Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (South-west), “We have arrested both of them under Sections 302 (murder) and 363 (Punishment for kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 25,27 and 30 of the Arms Act and 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act at the Najafgarh police station.”
Police said that Shubham had been hiding in Tughlakabad area at his friend’s place for the past 40 hours. “We received a tip-off on Friday afternoon that he will be coming to Saket. Our team laid a trap and we held him on late Friday evening,” said the DCP.
The luxury car and the pistol with a valid licence belonged to Yogesh with whom Simran met on the fateful day. Police said that they have booked Yogesh under the appropriate sections of the Arms Act.