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A tantrik who promised to double money — and served ‘poisoned laddoos’: Cracking the Delhi flyover triple murder
Delhi Police have arrested the accused for allegedly poisoning two property dealers and a woman to rob Rs 2 lakh during a sham ritual.
The accused, Kamruddin alias ‘Baba’. (Source: Express Photo)
Days after two men and a woman were found dead in a car on Outer Delhi’s Peeragarhi flyover, the mystery of who killed them has been solved with the arrest of a self-styled godman on Wednesday.
Police said the accused, Kamruddin alias ‘Baba’, allegedly fed the trio sweets laced with poison and fled with their cash amounting to Rs 2 lakh. A resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad, police said the accused operated a ‘tantric’ centre in Loni and Firozabad.
How was the case cracked?
It was on Sunday morning that the bodies were discovered in the car: Randhir Singh (76) was found dead in the driver’s seat while Shiv Naresh Singh (47) and Laxmi Devi (40) were found motionless in the back. There were no immediate signs of external injuries on the bodies.
Randhir and Shiv, both property dealers hailing from Najafgarh’s Baprola village, knew each other. Their relatives, however, claimed they had never heard of Laxmi. With their families rejecting claims of suicide, police probed the murder angle.
Police got their first clue from Laxmi’s family. They said she was in touch with a ‘godman’. According to officers, Laxmi got to know about Baba through a man from her locality around two-and-a-half months back.
“Her second husband was sick and she thought that Baba could help him recover. …she hoped that things would get better after Baba’s ‘Dhanvarsha’ ritual. She told Naresh about him…they both started meeting Baba,” an officer privy to the investigation said.
“Since Baba demanded money for the ritual, Laxmi and Naresh roped in Randhir and introduced him to the Baba. In the last couple of months they met him four times,” the officer added.
On the day of the incident, they met Baba before travelling to Peeragarhi as they wanted to carry out the ritual at their choice of place, police said.
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Police personnel at the site where the three bodies were found inside a car at the Peeragarhi flyover on Sunday. (ANI Video Grab)
Through technical analysis of call detail records and location data, police found that all three had travelled to Loni in Ghaziabad a day before the incident. On the day they were found dead, the trio had visited Loni again.
Evidence pointed to Kamruddin, who allegedly boarded the vehicle in Loni and later got off before the car was discovered. Kamruddin was subsequently apprehended. During questioning, police said he initially tried to mislead investigators but later allegedly admitted that he had been introduced to Laxmi about two months ago through an acquaintance.
She later brought Shiv and Randhir to him. The accused allegedly convinced them to perform a ‘pooja’ for ‘Dhanvarsha’, promising unexpected financial gain, and asked them to bring Rs 2 lakh in cash along with liquor and cold drinks for the ritual.
“He prepared laddoos mixed with poison and accompanied the three in their car. During the journey, he allegedly persuaded them to consume liquor, cold drinks and sweets. After they lost consciousness, he allegedly took the cash and fled, abandoning the vehicle,” said DCP (Outer Delhi) Sachin Sharma.
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Investigators said technical and circumstantial evidence corroborates his presence in the car at the relevant time.
A case has been registered at Paschim Vihar East police station and further investigation, including forensic examination to determine the exact nature of the poison, is underway.
“He lured people by making promises of quick money, claiming that he could multiply wealth through occult practices and tantrik rituals. He projected himself as someone who could double or even triple money through tantrik methods,” an officer said.
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