A 21-year-old man has been arrested along with his three childhood friends for allegedly killing a woman who was pressuring him to get married to her, police said on Thursday.
The accused, Sumit Kumar, a driver by profession, hatched a conspiracy along with his three friends -- Ravi, Arun and Amit -- to kill the 32-year-old woman, they said.
The woman was pressuring Kumar to get married to her although she was already married, officials said.
Kumar offered his friends Rs 1 lakh to kill the woman and also convinced them to rob the cash and jewellery in her house, police said.
The accused killed the woman on February 8, when she was alone in her house in southwest Delhi's Kishangarh. She had moved in with her husband to the rented flat on February 1.
To mislead the police, after killing the woman, Kumar also took her to a private hospital where she was declared brought dead, police said.
After initial enquiries, a case of murder was registered. Using using technical surveillance and source-based inputs, Kumar was apprehended thereafter, police said.
During interrogation, Kumar disclosed that the woman fell in love with him and started pressuring him to get married, although she was herself married.
But Kumar remained reluctant as he was apprehensive that she had physical relations with other men too. So, he decided to get rid of her and hatched a conspiracy with his three childhood friends to eliminate her, said Ingit Pratap Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest).
Before executing the plan, Arun conducted a recee of the area and the house. As per the plan, on February 8, they assembled at Malviya Nagar. Amit and Arun boarded an auto and Kumar along with Ravi reached Kishangarh on a bike.
Thereafter, Kumar called the woman from Ravi's phone and reached her house. He also called his three friends to her house, he said.
"As per plan, after reaching her house, Arun started assaulting Kumar. In the meantime, Amit and Ravi caught hold of the woman while Arun strangulated her with a muffler. When she became unresponsive, they released her but Kumar directed Arun to eliminate her since he noticed that she was still breathing. So, Arun took out a knife and stabbed her on the neck," the senior police officer said.
After killing her, they ransacked the house in order to find cash and jewellery. However, they could find only Rs 2,000 cash and the mobile phone of the woman, he said.
The three accomplices left the house and on the way, Arun threw the knife in a park and burnt the muffler. But Kumar stayed back and took the body to the hospital with the help of a caretaker to mislead police, the officer said.
The police have also recovered the blood stained knife and mobile phone of the woman.
