Four arrested for killing insurance agent

NEWDELHI: Four debt-ridden men were arrested for allegedly kidnapping a 57-year-old insurance agent, killing him and dumping his body in a canal in Bulandshahr earlier this month, the police said on Thursday.

The body of Deepak Dua was found in Sikandrabad area, a few kilometers away from where the suspects had thrown it into the canal after strangling him.

The police identified the suspects as Vinod Kumar, Sandeep,

Monu Sharma and Sunny. The fifth suspect, Shiv, is still absconding. The car is also yet to be found. The four were previously involved in honeytrap and betting cases, police said. All suspects had lost money in betting.

An investigator said Kumar knew Dua for the past two years as he used to contact him regarding insurance policies. Since Dua was always dolled up, Kumar got an impression that he was rich and, if kidnapped his family would pay a handsome amount.

Additional commissioner of police (crime) Braja Kishore

Singh said they bought two SIM cards from Kosi Kalan in UP on fake documents. Kumar contacted Dua and offered to buy a policy, said Singh.

On January 4, Dua met the four men at Nangloi Metro station from where they took him to Dariyapur in outer Delhi. But they dropped the plan that day.

Two days later, Kumar asked Dua to come to Noida. Kumar and his three associates picked up Dua from a Metro station in a car and held him hostage. They demanded ₹25 lakh.

“Dua told them that he did not have that much of money and in fact offered ₹30,000 from his ATM card. They strangled Dua as they knew that leaving him alive will land them in police’s net. They drove to Bulandshahr and threw his body in a canal,” added Singh.

On January 7, Dua’s brotherin-law filed his missing complaint at Prashant Vihar police station after which a kidnapping case was registered. Ten days later, the Sikandrabad police informed about the recovery of Dua’s body.

Based on analysis of call records, the police zeroed in on the four suspects.