For 12 hrs, killer tried to mislead police
Eighteen-year-old Sarthak Kapoor may have killed Shreya, 17, in a fit of rage. But the way he avoided suspicion or misled investigators in hours after the killing had traces of a seasoned criminal mind, police said.
Sarthak was quick to react when informed about Shreya’s disappearance on Wednesday evening. He immediately dialled his friends and asked them to assemble at his home to launch a search of the missing girl.
“Sarthak begun howling when I expressed my fears that something wrong could have happened to my daughter. But by the way he cried, I knew he was faking it and had a hand in my daughter’s disappearance. However, I had not imagined that he could have killed her,” said Shreya’s father, Yogesh Sharma.
“He (Sarthak) and his parents kept assuring me that they would do everything to ensure that my daughter was found. I kept praying that I was wrong in my assessment of Sarthak,” Yogesh said.
His first priority being the safe return of his daughter, Shreya’s father had decided not to involve the police for almost four-five hours after his daughter failed to return home from tuitions at her usual time.
“I never knew that he had already killed my daughter. So, I scared him by saying that I would register an FIR,” said Yogesh.
But when Sarthak kept insisting that he was innocent, Yogesh visited the KN Katju Marg police station late in the night, filed an FIR and told police that he suspected Sarthak. “The manner in which Sarthak was responding to questions, I could say he was guilty,” said a investigator.
But it took the police a few more hours before they could get him to “confess”. Even after that, Sarthak did not immediately lead the police to the crime scene. He instead misled the police through various streets in Rohini Sector 17 and nearby areas before finally pointing to the murder spot.