New Delhi: Fed up with his stepfather’s constant abuse and addiction to the bottle, Deepak and his mother ran out of patience when Anjan Das allegedly tried to molest and rape his divorced sister and wife, ThePrint has learnt.
Das, 45, who worked as a lift operator temporarily, was missing for the past six months but neither Deepak nor Poonam Devi had reported it to the police. Those asking about Das’ whereabouts were told that he had gone to his native village in Bihar’s Bhagalpur.
Deepak and his mother allegedly sedated Das and then stabbed his throat on 30 May in the night, the police said. Over the next two days, they dismembered the body into 10 pieces after draining blood, kept them in as many plastic bags to dump them later, cleaned the floor with phenyl, and whitewashed the house in Trilokpuri to wipe out evidence of the crime, the police said.
The accused allegedly used perfumes and room freshners to mask any smell, they added.
The conspiracy was hatched in April, and the accused kept the murder under wraps for nearly six months. In early June, the Pandav Nagar police found a plastic bag with a human leg from Ram Leela ground. Not far away another bag was recovered with a thigh. But investigation hit a dead end as the identity of both the victim and the accused remained unknown.
On Sunday, the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch team, led by assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Umesh Barthwal, cracked the murder with the arrest of Deepak and Poonam. While Deepak is a part-time waiter, Poonam works in the nursing department of a hospital.
The breakthrough came when the victim’s identity was established. The police have so far recovered a skull, both legs and one arm in six bags.
Das’ mobile phone and clothes of the accused seen wearing in the CCTV footage were seized from Poonam’s house in Trilokpuri, they said, adding that the murder weapon is yet to be recovered.
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Breakthrough & trigger
CCTV footage, contradicting statements of the accused and technical analysis of the footage backed up the police’s suspicions on Poonam and Deepak in the case.
It took the Crime Branch two months to zero down on the suspects after an elaborate process of CCTV footage analysis, door-to-door identification of the victim, and screening of missing complaints across police stations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
“There was no trigger point on that night. The anger was growing in both Poonam and Deepak. They have said during questioning that Anjan was an alcoholic, and would steal Poonam’s jewellery, money and send it to his first wife’s children in Bihar,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime, Amit Goel said.
The breaking point came when Poonam’s daughter-in-law and 22-year-old divorced daughter complained to them that Das would grope them.
“Das tried to molest and rape them. Poonam and Deepak got very frustrated and angry due to his lecherous habits. So, in April, she along with her son Deepak hatched the conspiracy to kill him,” Special CP, Crime, Ravindra Singh Yadav said.
The Crime Branch rechecked the footage of the area where the body parts were found and it came to notice that between 31 May and 1 June, a woman and a man were seen disposing of plastic bags at Ram Leela ground in the night. Technical analysis revealed that on 1 June, around that same time, they were seen near the spot where the plastic bags were found.
When the suspects were questioned, they initially didn’t admit to their crime. “The breakthrough came when the team got inputs and established that a person was missing since the incident, but no report was lodged. We received information that Anjan Das was missing for 5-6 months and his family never reported it to the police. Upon interrogation, Poonam and Deepak gave conflicting statements. However, they later confessed to hatching the conspiracy to kill Das,” Yadav said.
Almost perfect crime
Police said that on 30 May, Deepak sent his sister to stay with his wife and three-year-old son in Kalyanpuri as he and his mother planned to kill Anjan Das.
Deepak and his wife moved out of the house in Trilokpuri because of harassment by Das, claimed the wife and her sister-in-law. His wife said she would never visit that house because of Anjan’s actions, the police said..
“Poonam and Deepak gave Das sleeping pills and alcohol. Deepak had already arranged a dagger and a knife for killing him. When Das felt dizzy, they seized the opportunity to stab him in neck, chest and abdomen,” the Special CP said.
After the murder, the police said, the two drained the blood out first and chopped the body. “They wiped the floor and got the room whitewashed before Diwali. They stored the body parts in a fridge and disposed of them in two days,” a source said.
Apart from Ramlila Ground, the bags were dumped near Ganda Nala, and New Ashok Nagar. “Both of them again cleaned the room as well as the refrigerator by using phenyl,” Yadav said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)