23-year-old found dead in 2017: Murder case filed
NEW DELHI: Eight months after a 23-year-old man was found dead in mysterious circumstances in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka, police registered a case of murder following a city court’s order.
The man, Arnav Duggal, was allegedly found hanging from a ceiling fan in the house of his female friend in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka Sector 10 in June 13 last year.
According to the prosecution, Duggal worked at a hotel. He had reportedly gone to stay the night at the friend’s house and was found hanging the next morning. No suicide note was recovered.
The court on February 17 had directed the police to register an FIR under appropriate sections. It had also ordered an inquiry into the alleged lapses by police officials associated in the case.
“Despite the deceased being found dead in mysterious circumstances, police has refused to register an FIR despite serious allegations being levelled by his parents. It seems a deliberate attempt is being made right from the beginning to take the probe in this matter in the direction of a suicide,” the court had said.
Alok Kumar, joint commissioner of police (crime), said on Saturday that a case had been registered under section 302 (murder) of the IPC after the court’s order.
During investigation, police had said Duggal was in love with the woman and allegedly forced her to be in a relationship with him but she was not interested. Though the police told the court that Duggal had hanged himself from the fan, the police file did not contain any such photo.
As Duggal’s parents were not satisfied with the police inquiry, they had approached the police commissioner, who asked crime branch to examine the allegations and see if any case was made out. The parents were not convinced with the crime branch’s inquiry either and approached the court in December.
The victim’s mother had submitted photographs that showed the fan was not bent. The fan was covered in dust, with cobwebs hanging. The court said the fan appeared to not have been disturbed at all.
The mother alleged the scene of crime had been tampered with. She had told the court that police had not sealed the room despite requests, and were trying to cover up the incident and portray it as suicide.