An army deserter and two contract killers were arrested by a crime branch team from Roorkee in Uttarakhand on Monday for murdering a 37-year-old woman inside her house in Gurugram’s Sohna and ransacking it to make the incident look like a burglary gone wrong, police said on Tuesday.
The suspects were Sandeep alias Fauji who hailed from Daulah and the contract killers Avinash and Anuj who hailed from Roorkee, Uttarakhand.
Police said Sandeep was a deserter from the army while the two killers have criminal antecedents.
The victim was Neetu, Sandeep’s sister-in-law, who was found dead inside the bathroom of her house with her limbs tied and several layers of masking tape pasted on her face covering the mouth and nose which made her suffocate to death at Daulah in Sohna on October 16.
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A family member had reached her home to meet her when she found the main entrance open and the entire house ransacked. She raised an alarm when neighbours reached the spot and removed the tapes from Neetu’s face and alerted her husband Prashant Kumar, a private school teacher.
He immediately returned with three children by 3pm and rushed her to a private hospital where doctors declared her dead following which a murder case against unidentified suspects was registered at Sadar Sohna police station.
A senior police officer said that the army deserter was Sandeep alias Fauji who was Prashant’s elder cousin living in Daulah.
“He wanted to sell a 1300 square yard land parcel in Sohna which was a family property. He had even taken an advance amount from a potential buyer six months back with intent to sell it,” he said.
The officer said that Neetu had objected to the sale of the valuable property in such a haste following which Sandeep had to return the advance payment taken for the land deal.
“It was at this moment when Sandeep decided to eliminate Neetu as she had a hurdle in selling the land,” he said.
Investigators said that Sandeep finally hired Avinash and Anuj from Uttarakhand who reached Sohna by 10am on October 16.
They said Sandeep picked them up on his motorcycle and dropped them near Neetu’s home as he knew that she would be alone during this time since her husband and three children leave for school every morning.
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Both entered inside and physically assaulted her after tying limbs, taping her face and finally left her to die inside the bathroom. Police said both suspects stayed inside the house for 40-44 minutes during which they ransacked it to make it appear that she was murdered during a burglary. Afterwards, Sandeep returned to the spot to pick them up and fled. The trio’s movement was captured in CCTV cameras at multiple locations.
ACP (Sohna) Mukesh Kumar said no valuables were found to be stolen in the course of investigation and the killers had not even removed the jewellery from Neetu’s body which had given rise to suspicion that the murder was pre-planned.