Dehradun police which is drawing criticism from all quarters for failing to solve the Balawala murder case showed a rare promptness when it solved the case in which a man was found murdered in car in Sahaspur police station area of the city, in less than 24 hours. The police claimed that the dispute for the money involved in cricket betting was the motive behind the murder.
Informing about the breakthrough the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Rautela told newsmen here on Sunday that a person named Nitesh was found murdered in a car outside a house in Banjara lane located in Selaqui area on Saturday. The roommates of the deceased informed police that four persons barged into their room and stabbed Nitesh and abducted one Chirag. The assailants fled with Rs1.5 lakh and demanded a ransom of Rs5 lakh to release Chirag.
SSP said that a police team under Sahaspur Station Officer (SO) Yashpal Singh Bisht was constituted to nab the culprits. The culprits were regularly calling on the phone of complainant Anuj for the abduction money. The police team laid its trap on the Ambala- Chandigarh highway near Jirakhpur and on the signal of Anuj the police team which was in plain cloths swooped on the abductor.
Rautela said that the accused tried to fire at the police team but was overpowered and arrested. On the information provided by the abductor Sonu alias Gajni the police rescued Chirag from sector 20 Pachkula Haryana and arrested Piyush Pandit and Gopal the accomplice of Sonu. However one of the accused Anoop managed to flee from the spot but was later apprehended from his house in Hansi town of Hisar district. Sonu alias Gajni is a habitual offender and has a criminal record. He is involved in a number of cases in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi and carries a reward of Rs25,000 on his head.
The SSP said that the deceased Nitesh and Anuj were involved in a betting racket in Haryana and Delhi and had decamped with some money of the accused. The Director General of Uttarakhand police has declared an award of Rs20,000 for the police team involved in the case. The police team included SO Sahaspur Yashpal Singh Bisht, Sub Inspector (SI) DS Negi, SI Arvind Kumar, Constables Niraj Kumar, Ravindra Kumar, Naresh Pant, Jitendra Kumar, Piyush, Brijsh, Rajveer and Vipin Rawat.