Murdered man identified by tattoo on arm

THE POLICE CIRCULATED A PHOTO OF THE TATTOO ON THE MAN’S ARM, BEARING HIS NAME, ON SEVERAL WHATSAPP GROUPS, WHICH HIS ROOMMATE NOTICED

NEWDELHI: A tattoo on the arm of a man murdered for resisting a robbery helped identify him and his mobile phone location led investigators to his killers, the police said on Friday.

The three suspected killers turned out to be 17-year-old boys who stabbed the 29-year-old for resisting robbery on the Sarai Rohilla flyover in north Delhi on Monday night, said Nupur Prasad, deputy commissioner of police (north).

The victim, Shambhu Kumar, was a house painter working in north Delhi neighbourhoods.

He was returning to his home in Karol Bagh when he was intercepted and attacked by the three suspects at about 11.15pm.

Sooraj Yadav, a 23-year-old businessman who was passing by the crime spot with his friend, said he had stopped his scooter on spotting Kumar being robbed. But before he and his friend could react, the trio hopped on to a motorcycle and fled.

Yadav dialled the police on realising that Kumar had been stabbed in the chest. Kumar was rushed to a hospital but couldn’t be saved.

Since Kumar’s phone too was robbed, the police were initially clueless about his identity.

But police soon spotted a tattoo bearing the name ‘Shambhu Kumar’ in Hindi on his right arm.

“We circulated the photo of the tattoo on several Whatapp groups of workers in Karol Bagh and neighbouring areas,” the DCP said.

“Kumar’s roommate happened to see the photo and identified him,” he added.

The roommate provided police the victim’s phone number.

The police put the phone on surveillance and waited for the suspects to turn it on.

Meanwhile, the description of the suspects provided by eyewitness Yadav was similar to CCTV footage of boys on a motorcycle seen elsewhere in the city.

So, the police, who were already armed with the visual description of the suspects, swooped in on one of the suspects the moment he switched on the phone on Thursday.

Once one of them was nabbed, he led the police to his two associates.