A 25-year-old man was arrested from Delhi’s Outer District last week, after a 250-km chase, for allegedly murdering his landlord using a hammer following an argument over his drunkenness, the police said.
Officers identified the accused as Bihar native Pankaj Kumar Sahni. The police at Mangolpuri station said they had received a call early on August 10 informing that a man had been found dead with a head injury and they reached the spot to find the deceased bleeding from the head.
According to the police, the caller Jagdish, 32, said that the deceased was his father Suresh who had brought home a man named Pankaj four days before, and had allowed him to stay at their home on rent as he was an orphan. On the evening of August 9, Pankaj went out and returned in an inebriated state, leading to a scuffle between him and Suresh, Jagdish said. The matter was resolved when Pankaj apologised. Later, Pankaj called Jagdish and told him that he left around 11 pm because Suresh had used indecent language at him, Jagdish claimed.
Suspecting that something was up, Jagdish said he went to check and found his father lying bleeding on the first floor of the house where he lived. Pankaj had escaped with Suresh’s mobile phone, ID cards and other belongings, he added.
Soon, the police sent teams to bus terminals and railway stations in case the accused tried to return to his native Bihar. Officers also succeeded in tracing his mobile phone to the Anand Parbat area. By the time the police got there, he was at RK Ashram Metro station, they said. To avoid the police, the accused took the Metro to Faridabad, returned to Kashmere Gate and went to Ballab Garh from there, they added. Later, the police traced him to New Delhi railway station from where he took a train to Rohtak, Haryana and became untraceable. After a while, he was located and arrested in the Mangolpuri industrial area the same day, officers said.
Sameer Sharma, DCP (Outer) said, “The accused had disclosed that when he came to Mangolpuri for a job, Suresh had got one for him. After the quarrel on August 9, the accused wanted to take revenge on him. After they both consumed alcohol and Suresh fell asleep, the accused hit him on the head with a hammer. He also took a selfie with the body and took a video of it.”
The police said they have recovered the murder weapon and Suresh’s mobile phone, ID cards and money, and noted that further investigation was in progress.
