Cracking the case: How police reached a murder accused after 7 yrs, only to find him dead in hospital
It soon emerged that Neetu never left India and was staying all this while with her live-in partner Raju Gehlot, a former Indian Airlines crew member, who was identified as the prime suspect in the case.
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Accused Raju Gehlot; victim Neetu Solanki In 2010, 29-year-old software engineer Neetu Solanki left her home in Delhi’s Matiala area to fulfill her dreams of working in Singapore. A few months later, on February 11, 2011, chopped up pieces of her body were found in a bag outside the New Delhi Railway station. It took the police 12 days to trace her family; it was only after a peacock feather tattoo on her waist matched the description by her parents in the missing persons’ report that the cops could establish her identity.
But then began another search: Who killed Neetu? And how did she end up in Delhi if she had left for Singapore?
It soon emerged that Neetu never left India and was staying all this while with her live-in partner Raju Gehlot, a former Indian Airlines crew member, who was identified as the prime suspect in the case.
However, arresting Raju proved to be an elusive affair for the cops. It was finally a call from a hospital in Gurugram in 2019 which led them to the accused. Turned out, Raju had been admitted there following an illness. Before the police could finally reach the accused, he had succumbed to his illness.
Police said even though Neetu told her parents she was going to Singapore, she never left India. Instead, she stayed with her partner in different places such as Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune. She wanted to marry Raju but his family didn’t approve of her.
In February 2011, her body was found stuffed in a travelling bag outside the NDLS. Even though the police had a “clear suspect” in the case, Raju, police could never arrest him.
As per the police, from 2011 to 2019, he remained untraced as he continued changing his identity.
Before the murder, he worked with the Indian Airlines and lived in Air India Colony in Vasant Kunj. Police said he was a DU graduate with a diploma in French language.
A retired IPS officer, who was one of the investigators in the case, told The Indian Express: “He was smart and knew what he was doing. His cousin, Shokeen, was caught after we found his car was used to dispose of the body. But Gehlot always remained on the run. He first went to Goa and stayed there for sometime. He used more than 15 SIM cards to stay in touch with his family. He returned when he thought it was safer for him…”
He allegedly created a fake identity in the name of Rohan Dahiya and started working in the automobile industry. “He was living in Gurugram and kept a low profile to evade police. He was staying at a paying guest facility,” added the officer.
While the police had caught his cousin and chargesheeted him, they could never locate him.
Inspector Ritesh Sharma, who was a sub-inspector at that time, always kept in touch with the family of Gehlot even when the case was transferred to the Crime Branch.
In 2019, he got a call from the Gehlot family which left him and other officials shocked. “We found out that Gehlot was in a hospital in Gurugram. He was admitted there following a liver infection. When we reached the hospital, he had died but we had found our killer. He had been hiding for years. He was identified. The investigation was finally over,” said another officer involved in the case.
Further investigation revealed Gehlot and Solanki had returned to Delhi’s Hari Nagar in 2011 after staying in different cities for some time. They had a heated argument as Solanki wasn’t happy with Gehlot leaving his job and taking to petty crimes to earn easy cash. He murdered her in a fit of rage, police said. He then stuffed her body and called his cousin to dispose it off, they added.
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