Delhi Police arrested three suspects for the 2nd January murder on Wednesday, January 11
The Delhi police have arrested three suspects who had murdered a woman on 2nd January on Wednesday, officers said. The caretaker of the cemetery who helped the suspects by taking bribes and helping them bury the body was also arrested, they added.
A 53 year- old resident of Delhi was kidnapped outside her house in outer Delhi. The woman who worked as a moneylender lent money to the suspects was later suffocated to death and then buried at a cemetery in the city, said the police on Thursday, adding that the suspects allegedly killed her as they owed her money.
The suspects arrested on Wednesday for the 2nd January murder were identified as Mubeen Raza (28), Naveen (32), and Mursalim alias Rehan (19). The caretaker identified as Sayed Ali (40) was also arrested.
According to police, Meena Wadhawan, the victim, gave loans to street vendors and others on a daily basis, including Mubeen Raza an auto-rickshaw driver, and Naveen a tailor. The two were also involved in her money-lending business, they added.
On January 2, Wadhawan was abducted outside of her Avantika Enclave house near Mangolpuri. The two suspects brought her to Raza’s house where he then choked her to death along with Naveen. The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Harendra Kumar Singh said that Raza and Naveen murdered Wadhawan because they were demanding a fresh loan but she had been asking them to repay the loan of 15,000 rupees that they owed her previously. Mursalim alias Rehan, a barber, helped them to dispose of the body, added DCP.
Chronology of the events
Aware of the case the three after killing Wadhawan transported the body to a graveyard in Nangloi and surreptitiously buried the body in the early hours of January 3. Before the burial, the three ripped off her gold jewelry and the limbs of the body. To evade detection the three burned her phone, said the police.
On the same night, shortly after Wadhawan left her house on January 2. Her 4 children tried to contact her but their calls were unanswered at first, and later her phone was unreachable. After searching for their mother they lodged a missing person’s complaint at the Mangolpuri police station on 3 January.
New suspicions build up as police tracked the phone locations
The police registered the complaint on 3 January as the victim’s family filed a complaint. “The family members were also accompanied by Raza and Naveen”, said the police.
The police started to suspect the role of Raza and Naveen after they detected their phone locations in the same location where Wadhawan’s latest phone was. The suspicion grew further when Naveen went to Delhi court and cleared his anticipatory bail on January 7. Soon after the woman’s missing person complaint was turned into a kidnapping case, said the DCP.
An Investigator working on the case said, “ We lacked evidence other than that of the phone locations as to corroborate Naveen’s role… but when he secured no coercive action against him from the kidnapping case our suspicion was directed on him”.
During the interrogation when we confronted the suspects with the technical evidence, Raza and Naveen broke down and confessed their crime.
In his confession, Raza admitted that he took the victim in his auto-rickshaw to his house to introduce her to some prospective clients. When they arrived, Naveen and Mursalim were already present there. They demanded money from her which she refused as she asked them to repay their previous loan. Following this they killed her.
Wadhawan’s family members silenced her name over fears of requital from the accused, alleged for forcing her to call her son, and demanded him to bring 50 lakh rupees for her safe release. When she refused to do so, the suspects killed him. They further added.
Later investigation surfaced new shreds of evidence
As the investigation progressed new developments surfaced in the case, According to the investigator “the trio panicked after the victim died. They decided to dispose of her body, so headed to Nangloi to bury her as Naveen and Mubeen lived nearby. On 3 January around 1 am, they ripped off the jewelry from Wardhawan’s body and left with the corpse for the cemetery and buried her in an already dug grave”.
The body was later recovered and cremated on Thursday said the police. The caretaker named Sayed Ali (40) was arrested on the charges of taking a bribe of 5,000 rupees and allowing the burial without making a registry.
