3 held for killing man whose tempo hit pet dog

NEW DELHI: Five days after a 40-year-old man was stabbed to death in a fight that had ensued after his tempo hit a neighbour’s pet dog, police on Wednesday said they have arrested three people, including the owner of the canine, for the murder.

Police said the three men, along with another person, had stabbed Vijender Rana and his elder brother 45-year-old Rajesh Rana six to seven times in front of their family members in southwest Delhi’s Mohan Garden near Uttam Nagar on Friday night.

While the three main suspects — Ankit, his brother Paras and their tenant Dev Chopra — had fled the city, their associate Karan was arrested a day after the crime. The three were last spotted visiting Chopra’s Spa Centre in Dwarka Sector-7 in a CCTV camera footage.

Confirming the development, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said the three men were arrested from Dwarka Sector-9 on Wednesday morning on the basis of a tip-off that they had planned to surrender before the Dwarka court.

“We have recovered the knife used in the crime. A Mahindra XUV-500, in which the accused had fled the city, the clothes that Chopra was wearing at the time of the crime and the mobile phone he was using have all been seized,” said Alphonse.

During questioning, a police officer said, the three revealed that after fleeing the crime scene, they went to Chopra’s spa centre. From there, they went to Hari Nagar to take Chopra’s Mahindra XUV-500 that he had given to his business partner Pankaj.

“They fled to Phagwara in Punjab where Ankit’s uncle lives. The uncle refused to give them shelter following which they went to Murthal,” said the DCP. They went to Manesar on Sunday and stayed at their hideout till Wednesday morning. “They were on their way to meet a lawyer when we caught them,” he said.