Mumbai/New Delhi: Two persons have been arrested and a juvenile was apprehended for allegedly stabbing to death Riya Gautam, who was pursuing an air hostess training course, in full public view recently in Delhi, police said on Saturday.
Adil Banne Khan (23), Juned Salim Ansari (19) were arrested and a juvenile apprehended by the Mumbai Crime branch from suburban Bandra late last night, they said.
While Khan, the main accused, is a resident of Delhi's Mansarovar Park, the two others belong to Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. "Khan and one of his associates have been arrested, while another associate, who is a juvenile, has been apprehended from Bandra," Sanjay Saxena, the Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police (Crime), told PTI.
All the accused were handed over to a team of the Delhi Police, Saxena said.
Yesterday, Unit-9 of the Mumbai Crime Branch received information that Khan and two of his associates were hiding somewhere in Bandra East, a police official said.
Subsequently, a search operation was conducted in the area and the police caught hold of the three accused, he said. Eyewitnesses and the place where the crime took place were examined and the route taken by the accused was analysed through CCTV cameras and technical surveillance, said Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police (Shahdara) Nupur Prasad.
It was found that Khan had also taken away the mobile phone of victim after killing her.
Ten special teams, headed by Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police (Seemapuri) Hareshwar V Swami, were constituted to catch the accused.
Sources said Khan had planned the crime in detail and had discussed the plan with Ansari and the juvenile.
He had visited Ansari and the juvenile in Aligarh where they stay and brought them to Delhi, sources said.
They purchased a knife from Chhota Bazaar in Shahdara. Khan tasked his associates with conducting a recee of the area and informing him whenever she comes out of her house. After killing the woman, the trio boarded a bus to Aligarh and got down two kilometres away from Delhi and took another bus to Mathura, the sources said. From Mathura, they boarded a bus to Mumbai. At Baroda, which was one of the stops in their journey, Khan switched on Gautam's phone that gave police a vital clue.
The Delhi Police was in touch with their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai and Gujarat to track down the accused. During interrogation, Khan said he was friends with Gautam for the last three years. Over the last few days, she had started avoiding him, said the officer.
Police sources said he also suspected her of being friends with other men and that irked him. He discussed about Gautam's behaviour with his associates who told him that she had ditched him and a plan was hatched to kill her.
Gautam (21), a resident of Ramnagar area in Mansarovar Park, was stabbed multiple times on July 5 by Khan in a busy market. She succumbed to her injuries the next day at a hospital in Delhi.
An offence of murder was registered against Khan at the Mansarovar Park Police Station after Gautam's death. Her family had alleged that she had filed a police complaint against the accused in April but no action was taken.
Comments
0 comment