Men kill money lender, burn car to stage accident, arrested
NEW DELHI: Two men, who could not pay back a sum of ₹2.35 lakh to one of their acquaintances, bludgeoned and stabbed him, before running him over with his own car to make it look like an accident in north Delhi’s Timarpur on Tuesday night.
Police said, the two men were arrested within 24 hours of murder. The man’s car was found abandoned and burnt in Pitampura, 15 km from the crime spot.
Senior police officers said around 9.30pm, a PCR call was received at Timarpur police station reporting that a critically injured man is lying on an isolated stretch near Gandhi Vihar in Timarpur. When a CATS ambulance rushed the man, Pawan Bathla, 35, to Sushrut Trauma Center near Kashmere Gate, doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
A police officer who was at the spot, but is not authorised to speak to the media, said a medical examination found that Bathla had stab wounds on his left shoulder. “A closer look revealed that he had been bludgeoned and had grievous injuries on his head, possibly from a heavy blunt object. The man’s identity was established and his family members were informed,” the officer said.however, as the police started to probe the death as an accident case, Bathla’s family members raised suspicion, claiming that he had left house in his Honda City car, the officer said.
“On this, the registration number of the car was circulated, and within two hours we got a call that a car of similar make has been found abandoned near Madhuban Chowk in Pitampura. However, the local police informed us that the car had been set afire. This raised several suspicions on Bathla’s death, and investigations were started accordingly,” the officer said.
The police team from Timarpur
police station then scanned through the call details of Bathla’s phone and found that he had been in constant touch with two numbers, that belonged to Nitin Chhabra and Mannu Wadhwa.
Wadhwa is a part time property dealer, police said.
DCP (north) Nupur Prasad said the two men were arrested and interrogated, during which they confessed of having killed Bathla. “They said that Chhabra had taken a loan of ₹2.35 lakh from Bathla, on which he was charging heavy interest. Since they were unable to pay the money, they planned to eliminate him. The two men told police that they called Bathla to Timarpur where they bludgeoned and stabbed him. To make it look like an accident, they fled from the spot in Bathla’s Honda City car and set it afire to destroy evidence,” the DC said.