RTI activist Chandra Mohan Sharma faked his own death. He has been arrested for murder
A Right to Information Activist believed to have been killed in a car fire three months ago has now been arrested for murder. Chandra Mohan Sharma, a married man who was also a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, allegedly faked his own death to live with another woman.
The police in Noida say on May 1, the activist killed a mentally-challenged man, placed him behind the wheels of a car, left his wallet and personal effects to make the body look like his, and set the car on fire.
"Then he went to Bangalore and had been living there with another woman he loved," Senior Superintendent of Police Preeinder Singh said on Thursday, parading Chandra Mohan before the media.
A police team arrested the 38-year-old in Bangalore and brought him to Noida near Delhi.
They traced him through the mobile phone of the woman he was living with.
Sharma reportedly told the police that he had strained relations with his wife Savita, a social worker, so he came up with the elaborate plan. The police say he also got his wife's brother to help, telling him she would get insurance and a job if they could go through with the plan.
The police identified the body in the car, charred beyond recognition, to be Chandra Mohan's. But in the past few days, there had been rumours that he was alive. His wife had been suspicious since another woman in the neighbourhood was reported missing, a month after her husband's supposed death.
Savita Sharma went to the police, who found that the woman had been in touch with Chandra Mohan. They started tracking her phone records and finally found them together.
The police say Chandra Mohan had a difficult time in Bangalore as he had a low paying job. He allegedly tried to get his woman friend to leave and made anonymous calls to her family, telling them that she had been "spotted", which made it easier for the police to track them down.