Missing RWA official, nervous man on CCTV & murder case cracked in 2 weeks

Sanyal was the general secretary of the Janakpuri residents’ welfare association, and lived alone ever since his brother died during the pandemic two years ago. He was last seen on September 19, 2022, near his house. A week after his disappearance, other RWA members approached police.

Ghanshyam Bansal, DCP (West), recalled, “It was a blind case for us, with no known persons, no body and no clues in the beginning. CCTVs outside the victim’s house weren’t working. We had only phone details, and started looking at his bank records.”

A team led by inspector Dinesh Yadav found that someone had withdrawn more than Rs 7.9 lakh from Sanyal’s account – through a series of transactions.

“It was then that we found CCTV footage in the area showing a young man taking money out from an ATM. He was roaming around the area and looked nervous… with his hands on his head and his head shaking. The teams then started to look into Sanyal’s profile. We found that he had lodged a complaint against his friend Anil (46) for using his phone and transferring Rs 15 lakh into his own account in August 2022. However, neither Anil nor Sanyal gave proper statements, and the case did not progress,” said an officer.

Investigators, though, were confused as Anil is 46 years old and the suspect seen in the footage was a young man. Anil, meanwhile, was missing. The teams also found that someone had used a fake ID to withdraw the money.
Investigators said they approached the bank and questioned staffers, and they told police that a man who had withdrawn money from Sanyal’s account had produced two different ID cards.

“This was a big mistake committed by the accused… we found it suspicious. He must have been confused and tried to produce his real ID first. But then he panicked and gave his fake ID. He wanted to evade arrest. We knew something was wrong and started looking for the young man. He was identified as Vishal and arrested from West Delhi,” said another officer.

Vishal (27) told police he is Anil’s nephew. Police then conducted raids and arrested Anil from a hotel.

DCP Bansal said the duo allegedly took the victim in their car to Greater Noida on the pretext of some work. There, they allegedly strangled him near a vacant plot and burnt his body.

Teams were sent to Greater Noida but they couldn’t find the body. After several raids, police managed to recover ashes and some remains from a dry drain in Kasana, Greater Noida. The remains were sent for a bone superimposition test since there were no family members who could come for a DNA test.

During interrogation, the duo revealed that they allegedly killed Sanyal over the Rs 50 lakh insurance money he had received after his brother’s death. The duo had earlier tried to steal the money, but Sanyal got suspicious, police said.