A UPSC aspirant’s death, a curious crime scene, and a hard disk said to contain secrets: How police cracked Gandhi Vihar murder case

In the early hours of October 6 last year, the Delhi Fire Services were called to E-60 Gandhi Vihar to douse a fire on the fourth floor. In the flat, the firemen found many books, a destroyed cylinder of cooking gas, and a body that was charred beyond recognition.

The fire appeared to have started after the LPG cylinder burst. To identify the body, police made a call to Dausa, 250 km away in Rajasthan, to the family of Ram Kesh.

The boy from Dausa

Dausa is where Ram Kesh had grown up – and left 15 years ago after he cracked the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and enrolled in a top government engineering college in West Delhi.

Ram Kesh completed his BTech in 2015. But he did not want to be an engineer. At some point during his time in college, he was bitten by what a police officer described as the “UPSC bug”. He wanted to be a Class I civil servant – nothing else.

“He started preparing for the Civil Services Examination the year after he graduated,” the officer said. He took several attempts at what is often described as the “world’s toughest exam”. He failed every time.

“Ram Kesh had told his father that he wanted to become an IAS officer. He was determined, his father told us. He never even filled the form for any other competitive exam,” the officer said.

After receiving the call from Delhi Police in the middle of the night, Ram Kesh’s father rushed to Delhi and confirmed that the charred body was indeed that of his son.

He was puzzled – his son, he told police, was “brilliant”, or at least intelligent and responsible. How could he be so careless as to leave the gas on, or to not notice that the pipe was leaking?

“Ram Kesh’s father was surprised that his son had seemed oblivious to a leaking LPG cylinder close to him. It also seemed odd that the pipe was close to the mouth of the deceased,” the officer said.

Police had registered a case under Sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) and 106(1) (causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS).

“But clearly, a deeper probe was needed,” the officer said.

Clues on camera

Police began with looking at CCTV footage from outside Ram Kesh’s house on the night of the incident. Almost immediately, the officer said, they found something of interest.

The pictures showed two individuals, their faces covered, enter the building, the officer said. Then, at 2.57 am, a woman was seen leaving, along with two individuals. The fire started soon afterward.

“The woman was identified as 21-year-old Amrita Chauhan, with whom Ram Kesh had been in a live-in relationship. We found that she had entered Ram Kesh’s building the previous night, with her face covered,” the officer said.

Suddenly, the case seemed to no longer be one of negligence.

Police arrested Amrita, a BSc forensic science graduate, and a man called Sumit Kashyap, who they claimed was another one of her former boyfriends. The third person in the CCTV footage was identified as Sandeep Kumar, and was also arrested.

Both Sumit (27) and Sandeep (29) worked as distributors of LPG cylinders, police said. They said that it appeared that Amrita, Sumit, and Sandeep had allegedly killed Ram Kesh and burnt his body by staging a cylinder blast that was made to look like an accident.

A police team led by Inspector Pankaj Tomar, under the supervision of DCP (North) Raja Banthia, started to look for a possible motive.

The girl from Moradabad

Amrita had spent most of her life in Moradabad, where she lived in Peetal Nagri, the ‘city of brass’, with her parents and a younger brother, police said. Her father runs a small primary school for children in the area, and Amrita made a bit of money by giving Botany tuition at home, they said.

In 2021, police said, Amrita enrolled in a local college for a BSc degree in forensics. As the course progressed, she learnt that the composition of gases in the lungs could lead to disastrous consequences, police officers said. She was also watching a lot of true crime documentaries at the time, they said.

In 2022, according to police, Amrita met Sumit, who lived in the neighbourhood, and began a romantic relationship with him. She ultimately eloped with him, and her father gave an advertisement in a local newspaper, publicly disowning her, police said.

But Amrita returned after a week. “Her father allowed her to stay with the family, but she felt abandoned and isolated. After she graduated in 2024, she told her parents that she wanted to move to Delhi and start working,” the police officer said.

A relationship and a concern

In July 2024, Amrita allegedly met Ram Kesh in Noida, where she had gone for a job interview. They remained in touch, and a month later, Amrita confided in Ram Kesh that she was worried about mounting expenses, police said.

Ram Kesh then suggested that she move in with him to save on the rent, Amrita allegedly told police. She agreed, they said.

But Amrita soon began to tire of life in Delhi, police said. She did not see herself making much progress, and it seemed pointless to stay on when she could earn more or less the same as what she made giving tuition back in Moradabad, police said.

As she prepared to leave, Amrita allegedly asked Ram Kesh to delete their private photos and videos from his phone. She also asked him to delete any content pertaining to her that he had in a hard disk that he used to save all his study material.

“He assured her he would not share the contents with anyone, but he did not agree to show her the contents of the hard disk,” the police officer said.

Amrita returned to Moradabad, but she continued to feel uncomfortable about her videos with Ram Kesh, police said. “She was scared of what might happen if they got out,” the officer said. Amrita shared her unease with Sumit who, police said, still had feelings for her.

“Sumit was furious when he learned about the videos, and he decided to teach Ram Kesh a lesson,” DCP Raja Banthia said.

The alleged murder

On October 3, 2025, a week before the incident, Sumit and Amrita rented a flat in Chhattarpur in South Delhi, police sources said. Their plan was to steal the hard disk, they said.

On October 4, Amrita allegedly called Ram Kesh and asked if she could go across to collect some of her belongings. She went there around 9 pm, and after Ram Kesh went to sleep, she searched for the hard disk, but could not find it, the officer said.

The next day, the officer said, she called Sumit, and that evening – October 5 – Sumit and Sandeep reached Gandhi Nagar. After roaming around the neighbourhood for a few hours, they entered Ram Kesh’s building, the officer said.

According to police, Amrita had left the door of Ram Kesh’s apartment open for them, and they allegedly strangled him after gagging him. They then allegedly doused the body in some inflammable liquids.

“Sumit brought the gas cylinder from the kitchen, placed it near the head of the deceased, opened the regulator knob, and ignited a fire using a lighter,” DCP Banthia said.

According to police, the trio then rushed out, locking the door by inserting a hand through an opening in the mesh door, which gave the impression that it had been shut from inside. They allegedly took away a hard disk, two laptops, and a few other items belonging to Ram Kesh.

An hour later, the gas cylinder exploded, and Ram Kesh’s body was charred badly in the fire, officers said.

“During investigation, the police team collected Amrita’s call detail records and analysed them. At the time of the incident, her mobile phone’s location placed her near E-Block, Gandhi Vihar, where Meena lived. This confirmed our suspicions,” DCP Banthia said.

Police carried out multiple raids in Moradabad, and Amrita was arrested on October 18. The hard disk, a trolley bag, and a shirt belonging to the deceased were recovered, police said.

Sumit was apprehended on October 21, also in Moradabad. Sandeep was arrested on October 23.