Two men were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the murder of a 35-year-old man whose decomposed body was found in Delhi’s Dwarka Sector 18 on Sunday, police said.
Police had identified the deceased as Akhilesh Mandal, 38, a resident of Najafgarh, who was bludgeoned to death using a hammer. Police identified the accused as 28-year-old Raju Kumar, Mandal’s nephew, and 66-year-old Anil Thakur, who worked as a security guard.
According to senior police officers, both the accused had separate motives for the murder. Police said that Thakur held a grudge against Mandal as he was preventing him from selling his house, whereas Kumar suspected Mandal of being in a relationship with his wife.
Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Kushal Pal Singh said that on Sunday, the Dwarka north police station received information regarding an unidentified man’s body in an isolated area between the road and a drain near Kargil Chowk in Dwarka Sector 18A. Except for tattoos on his left forearm, police found no documents to identify him.
“A head injury suggested that the victim was assaulted with a blunt object and a case of murder was registered under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS),” said DCP Singh.
According to police, on Tuesday, a person reached the Najafgarh police station to lodge a missing person complaint and saw the photograph of his brother’s body at the station and the man was identified, the police said.
DCP Singh said investigators scanned nearly 500 CCTV cameras installed on the routes leading to the spot where Mandal’s body was found. They saw him walking with Thakur and Kumar.
“Upon interrogation, they said that on July 10, they lured Mandal on the pretext of consuming liquor and bludgeoned him to death with a hammer. They left his body and fled to Najafgarh,” added Singh.
