3 minutes, 3 murders, suspects who vanished into thin air: 2022 CNG pump killings in Gurgaon still unsolved

The location is ideal for business, though it often turns into a traffic bottleneck for vehicles exiting the expressway during rush hours.

On a December evening, vehicles — mostly cabs and two-wheelers — drive in and out, oblivious to the events that unfolded here three years, nine months and three days ago.

It was a Monday – February 28, 2022. The first light of the day was yet to creep over the horizon in those last darkest moments of the night. Three staff members, Pushpendra Singh (26), Naresh Kumar (23), and Bhupendra (22), were asleep inside the manager’s room.

Pushpendra was the pump’s manager, making Rs 15,000, Bhupendra was the CNG operator making Rs 11,000 a month, and Naresh, a filling staff earned Rs 6,000.

Unbeknownst to them, unidentified assailants crept into the pump at 2.44 am.

A preliminary probe later revealed that the attackers first targeted the power supply to the station, plunging the site into darkness. The calculated move also rendered the 14 CCTV cameras useless, erasing any chance of capturing the intruders’ approach.

With the lights out and the cameras disabled, the assailants entered the manager’s office.

What followed was a swift and savage stabbing spree that lasted 3-4 minutes.

The trio had no time to react. One of them, in a desperate bid for survival, staggered out and ran towards the adjacent petrol pump, collapsing there from his wounds moments later.

At exactly 2.47 am, the chaos spilled into view on the CCTV cameras of the neighbouring petrol pump, which remained operational. The grainy footage captured the harrowing final moments: the fleeing victim, bloodied and faltering, before he fell.

An attendant at the opposite pump, alerted by the sight, wasted no time. He dialed the Police Control Room for help.

By the time officers arrived, the scene was grim. Pushpendra and Naresh lay lifeless in the manager’s office. Bhupendra lay dead outside.

To the officers’ surprise, a safe in the office containing at least Rs 10 lakh in cash from gas sales lay untouched.

This immediately raised questions about the motive. Police found no signs of robbery: the victims’ phones and wallets were still with them, and the safe had not been breached.

But gas station operator Prashant Gulati later said around Rs 1 lakh appeared to be missing, adding a layer of uncertainty to the financial angle.

The case was swiftly registered for murder committed by multiple persons with a common intention.

The CNG pump in Gurgaon’s Sector 31, located on the service road along the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway. (Express Photo)

Arriving at the scene after a police alert, Gulati had described the devastation in his complaint and urged strictest action against the assailants who had targeted his loyal employees.

“I came to my [pump]… and saw that all the lights… were off… in the manager’s office, my pump manager Pushpendra Singh… and Naresh… lay dead… their bodies bore severe injuries caused by sharp weapons and there was a lot of blood… Another employee… Bhupendra… was also lying dead at Jwala petrol pump…,” he said in his complaint.

Bhupendra was the sole breadwinner of his family.

From Dhakrauli in Bulandshahr, he left behind his parents, elder sister, and brother-in-law. He lived in a rented room in Jharsa like his colleagues, and had been juggling his job with studying for a government post — a path he hoped would lift his family out of hardship.

His father was a marginal farmer, and Bhupendra’s earnings were their lifeline.

Naresh was married with two boys; his second child was born two months ago. He was from Piplot in Aligarh. Pushpendra was also from a village in UP.

How the probe unfolded

The grueling investigation spanned nearly three years, and as many Station House Officers of the Sector 40 police station. It was handled initially by Inspector Kuldeep and later by Inspectors Satish Kumar and Surendra Kumar, in tandem with teams from the Sectors 31 and 40 Crime Branch.

The police’s final report, seen by The Indian Express, reveals that an eyewitness sketch of the scene was prepared while the Crime Branch of Sector 31 combed the area, questioning locals and pulling tower dumps for mobile traces.

CCTV footage from the pump, though crippled by the power cut, was reviewed alongside the adjacent pump’s recording for suspicious vehicles and persons. Former and current employees were questioned, their statements recorded in detail.

Forensic teams too had moved swiftly. On February 28, Head Constable Rishiraj, a fingerprint expert, lifted “11 grass prints from the crime scene”. Dr Jyoti from the Scene of Crime unit directed the collection of key evidence: “a live rod and blood lying near the body of deceased Pushpendra Singh, a black knife butt, and green, white and red blanket” were secured from the site.

On March 1, post-mortem reports from the Gurgaon mortuary confirmed the extent of the wounds.

The police also announced a Rs 1 lakh cash reward for any information that would help identify and nab the accused — it remains unclaimed.

The probe deepened: the victims’ mobiles were sent to the Digital Investigation, Training, and Analysis Centre (DITAC) in Gurgaon, then rerouted to Panchkula after delays, with a letter urging haste.

Pump manager Krishnakant handed over the CCTV DVR with a Section 65B Evidence Act certificate.

A scaled map of the scene was drafted on March 8, when a special investigation was formed.

It was then that the Sector 31 Crime Branch’s in charge, Inspector Anand Kumar, became the primary investigating officer for the duration of the probe.

Higher authorities reviewed progress on March 22 that year. By November 7, 2022, a locked room at the pump was unlocked for videography, yielding two 16 GB pen drives.

Staff at the Sushant Lok office where the proceeds were deposited were questioned, criminal records of all questioned scoured, and field agents deployed to uncover leads.

All forensic evidence went to the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in Bhondsi. The trail grew cold. A year later, there was still no headway in the probe.

A dead end

Inspector Anand Kumar tells The Indian Express what went down.

“Bohot saara khoon tha (There was a lot of blood),” he says recalling his visit to the crime scene at 3.15 am that fateful day.

“We began by immediately questioning all the pump employees, including those of the adjoining and opposite pumps. We spoke to staff at the pump’s canteen, the nearby dhaba. As there was a use of a sharp weapon, we also spoke to staff at nearby eateries as we suspected maybe a Nepali cook was behind it,” he adds.

Among those questioned, which Inspector Kumar says numbered 400-500, were cleaning staff, Gulati himself, and several shopkeepers selling sharp weapons in the city.

“At the Sushant Lok office, there was a death of a guard in 2019, we revisited the suspects in those too. For everyone we questioned and suspected, we checked their antecedents. We also looked at vehicles passing by the pump around that time and spoke to the car owners. Nothing came up.”

The search for potential suspects extended, as police spoke to CNG pump technicians across the city, fuel pump employees across the district belonging to Uttar Pradesh. Eventually, even local landlords and neighbours of the deceased were ruled out.

“The various police teams then would revisit and re-interrogate those the other team spoke to. There were 100 numbers found active around the crime scene during the time of the incident, we traced and questioned all of them multiple times. We roped in the Cyber Cell for this,” says Kumar.

When the families had come to claim the bodies, the police spoke to them and other villagers — even as everyone said none of the deceased had enemies.

As to his theory behind the crime at the beginning and over time, Inspector Kumar said they first suspected a robbery case.

“Given that the incident took place after the weekend, there would be cash kept in plenty that was not yet deposited. So, we thought someone came to loot the pump. We spoke to the vendors who handled the cash too…”

“We looked at the personal enmity angle by probing if any of them had any kind of altercation recently,” he adds.

He maintains that it was not a case of organised crime, and adds that there was never any note claiming responsibility.

The police’s final report was filed on December 21, 2023, before a city court, and lays bare the frustration of a force that tried hard.

“Despite all possible efforts, no trace of the accused was found in the case.”

With nearly three years elapsed, it states: “A considerable amount of time has passed since the investigation of this case began, and it is not appropriate to continue the investigation any further. Therefore, a final UNTRACE report is being prepared in this case.”

Gulati was notified, as were superiors, and the report ends with a curt line: “If the accused are discovered in the future, the investigation will be resumed.”

No closure

For the families of the three victims, unanswered questions linger like the bloodstains that once soaked the floor.

Shailendra Singh (35), Pushpendra’s elder brother, used to work at the same pump earlier during the day shift. He now works as a driver in Delhi, struggling to make ends meet. He alleges that the pump operators dismissed him and Naresh’s brother, Mahesh, who was his colleague, 15 days after the incident.

“My brother is gone and we continue to await and demand justice. The police keep saying the probe is on when we call them, but we did not receive any final report. My brother had no enemies in town or back home, we had said even then,” he says.

On the police probe, Shailendra says they never got back to him about the results of the mobile phone analysis.

“CCTV footage just before the incident showed that he was getting a missed call; his phone’s flashlight was going on and off like it does when that happens. Who called him then and what did they find on the phone? We have written to the Chief Minister’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Commissioner too multiple times … but…,” his voice trails off.

Crime Branch officials say no evidence or revelatory material was found on the phones or the pen drives retrieved.

Gulati, meanwhile, has moved on from the pump. “I was only an operator. In November last year, I handed back the pump (to Haryana City Gas). I am retired now. After working for so long, I wanted to rest and take care of my aged parents.”

When asked about the police probe and his former employees, he says, “The police did a very thorough job, they left no stone unturned. However, not all crimes can be solved. Obviously, I feel very sad for the employees and their families. They were from a poor background… They were young and good men. On whether the police left any angles unexplored, who am I to say anything?”

He adds that soon after the incident, he had improved and increased CCTV coverage of the area.

The new operator, not wishing to be named, says he improved security: “After taking over, we re-did all the CCTVs, installed 18-20 battery-operated cameras to cover the whole pump area, for which we spent Rs 4 lakh. We also locked the area with the power source and strengthened the wall and grille there at our own expense. We maintain round the clock vigil here and have not faced any issue.”

The CNG pump stands as a quiet sentinel on the busy service road, the only witness to the gruesome murders. The perpetrators, meanwhile, still lurk in the shadows.

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