In a major breakthrough, the city police have cracked a double murder case that rocked the city recently. The accused, Hari Singh, hailing from Thikri in Barwani district, has been arrested and he has confessed to the crime.
Indore range IG Vipin Maheshwari, talking to media persons here on Tuesday, said that the arrest of the accused was made on the basis of a CCTV footage. Accordingly, separate police teams had been constituted who roamed around the city showing people the CCTV footage so as to get an inkling about the accused. Maheshwari said that in the CCTV footage clipping, the accused was seen coming to the victims’ residence by a bicycle carrying a welding machine.
Talking to relatives of the victim it was revealed that one of the deceased Shakuntala Mishra had carried out some fabrication works in the staircase of her house. On the basis of the information collected from the family members, separate police teams started collecting information about welders carrying welding machines and accordingly they came to know that three persons, namely, Rakesh, Jagmohan and the accused Hari Singh, had arrived at the residence for fabrication work.
Subsequently, the police zeroed in its probe on the three people and during a search operation of the houses of these persons, the accused Hari Singh and his wife were found to be missing from his residence in Kushwaha Nagar locality of the city. On being informed that Hari Singh is a native of Thikri in Barwani district, police interrogated bus drivers and conductors of buses plying between Indore and Barwani.
After being informed that a couple from Indore on the day of the incident had boarded a Barwani-bound bus and had got down at Thikri, a police team was sent to Barwani and arrested Hari Singh from his residence at Ghatwa village in Barwani district on Monday night. The accused was brought to Indore on Tuesday morning.
The accused on being interrogated confessed to his involvement in the double murder case. On the basis of information provided by him, police have recovered some looted goods as well as his bicycle carrying a welding machine. Efforts were on to recover the remaining valuables looted by the accused from the residence of the victims on the fateful day after their murders.
The double murder case had rocked the city on May 1 with the assailants killing an assistant director Ms Anita Dube (45), daughter of Jagat Narayan Dube, and Shakuntala Mishra (62), wife of Vikram Mishra, at their residence - 32 B, Bakhtawar Ram Nagar between 12 and 3 pm. After killing both the women, the accused had made his escape good after looting valuables including ornaments and cash. The case had been registered by Palasia police under section 312/14 sections 302, 397, 449 and 394 of the IPC.
The IG informed that the accused was earlier working as a casual labour and later in due course of time learnt fabrication works which became his main occupation. Replying to a query, the IG said that prima facie, the accused does not appear to be a habitual criminal and he might have committed the crime out of family requirements as he needed money for the marriage of his daughter next month.