In May 2019, 48-year-old Delhi businessman Sandesh Kumar Aggarwal went missing from his house in Shahdara. His children and relatives had no clue about his whereabouts and approached the police. With no ‘signs’ of abduction, murder or Sandesh leaving the city, the police too were stumped. Until they noticed a change in Sandesh’s elder son Aman’s routine, which eventually led to his arrest on charges of murdering his father. Sandesh’s body had been chopped into 35 pieces that were stuffed into four bags. The police said that 22-year-old Aman was an introvert but his ‘sudden outgoing’ behaviour at the time led to his downfall. Sandesh went missing from his home in May 2019. The police said he owned a cosmetics store in Farsh Bazaar and was often seen at his shop during the day. “We thought it was a business rivalry and started looking for his associates and friends. Nothing came out. The family told us that Sandesh might have left the house. We started looking into CCTVs around the area and gangs active in the area. Everything failed.,” a senior police officer who investigated the case said. At the time, Sandesh’s wife and younger son were vacationing in Manali and were called back. It was during this time that Sandesh’s brother Adesh pointed fingers at Aman. “We thought the man had left on his own or was with a friend. However, his brother was not convinced. He then blamed the son and said the father and son had a lot of issues. We decided to look into the allegations and started monitoring the son’s activities,” added the officer. While local enquiries revealed that Aman was a shy and introverted person, the police and family members observed that he had been seen with different locals since his father’s disappearance. The police said they were told that Aman often kept his house, a floor in the building, locked. However, this was not the case then as his door was often found unlocked. “We decided to keep a tab on all his activities. We found that one of his friends was often seen visiting the house at odd hours and the men were carrying packages. He was asked about his father and he said Sandesh had left the house last week but the CCTV footage from the lane could not confirm this. The CCTVs revealed unusual movement. We then found Aman carrying four heavy bags in the middle of the night.,” said another officer posted at Farsh Bazaar. Police teams were sent to Aman’s floor where they found him and his friend Ayush (23). Initially, Aman lied saying Ayush was a local delivery executive helping him with his new food business. As police officials started looking around the house, they could not find anything. They then checked the bags – only to find Sandesh’s head. The police team was shocked. They did not know the men were carrying body parts. A further search of the house and Aman’s car revealed four bags with 35 body parts. Further investigation revealed that Aman accused his father of beating his mother and him. After an argument over their business and Aman’s spending habits, he allegedly decided to kill his father. “He said he strangled his father in the heat of the moment. However, he then took two days off from work. He did not call anyone and started chopping Sandesh’s body. After chopping the body and cleaning the floor, he sought his friend Ayush’s help. He offered Ayush some money and asked him to bring a car and help him dump the body parts,” added the officer. The accused were on their way to dump the body parts when the police caught them. The body parts matched the DNA taken from the family members. An investigator said a chargesheet was filed against the duo for murder. Shahdara Deputy Commissioner of Police Rohit Meena said Aman jumped interim bail recently. The case is pending trial in court.
