Delhi Police has nabbed a 36-year-old shopowner and his associates for allegedly killing his employee with whom he was in an homosexual relationship. Police said that the accused alleged that the victim kept threatening that he would make the videos of their intimate moments viral, following which he took this step.
The accused shopowner along with his brother and an associate had dumped the victim's body in Sarojni Nagar area after killing him.
Police said that the shopowner got married 14 years ago and has two children and runs a cloth shop in Sarojini Nagar Market but didn’t have any previous involvement with gay men.
According to Gaurav Sharma, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Southwest district, on Saturday, police recovered the body of a 22-year-old man, a native of Kodarma district in Jharkhand from Sarojini Nagar area.
"A case of murder was registered and during investigation, it was revealed that deceased had a homosexual relationship with his employer and had secretly recorded his videos, while doing the illicit act. He was also blackmailing the shop owner and extorting money by threatening to make the video viral," said the DCP.
"On the basis of technical surveillance, it was revealed that both the victim and shopowner were found to be present at Sarojini Nagar Metro Station i.e. near the place where the body was dumped," said the DCP.
"On the basis of CCTV footage deceased was last seen alive with his shop owner. When the shop owner was examined he revealed that in order to execute the plan he contacted his nephew who came from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi. His nephew along with his friend came to Delhi in the evening of January 28 by booking a taxi from Khurja," said the DCP.
Narrating the sequence of the incident, the DCP said that shop owner's nephew and his friend booked two rooms in a guest house at Yusuf Sarai, Safdarjung Enclave area. When the CCTV cameras of the guest house were analysed, both of them were seen carrying a trolly bag into the guest house. They stayed there in one of the rooms while the shopkeeper went to Sarojini Nagar market to take the victim.
"At about 8.30 PM, the shopowner along with his employee reached the guest house, as can be seen in the footage captured in the CCTV camera. His nephew and his friend cut the nylon rope from the guest house balcony area which was used for drying clothes. After 5-10 minutes, all of them overpowered the victim and his shopkeeper's nephew strangulated the victim with the nylon rope and later his friend used his muffler to strangulate him," said the DCP.
They removed his shoes and jacket and stuffed his body inside the trolley bag.
It was loaded in the same taxi hired from Khurja by them and later they dumped the body in a secluded place near Sarojini Nagar metro station and covered it with a plastic sheet, said the DCP.
Thereafter, the shopkeeper took the personal belongings of the victim and dumped them at the Uttam Nagar East Metro Station and reached home, he said.
The accused's nephew took away mobile phone and empty suitcase to his native place in Khurja. His purse along with other documents were burnt at the shopowner's house after flushing it in bathroom, the police said.
Investigation team, conducted raids at Khurja, Bulandsahar and accused nephew and his friend were nabbed from there and the car used to transport the body, mobile phone of deceased, trolley bag in which body was packed and taken from hotel have also been recovered, said the DCP.
"Accused persons disclosed that they had made plan to kill the victim in a clandestine way on Jan 19 but deferred their plan after seeing heavy deployment of police and executed it in intervening night of January 28 and 29. Taxi driver also joined the investigation, but the accused persons mislead him by saying that they are carrying clothes in the trolley bag," the DCP added.