The police have revealed that a shirt recovered from model and actor Kritika Chaudhary’s flat in Andheri, where she was found dead on June 12, belongs to one of the two accused who were arrested for her murder on Monday. The shirt is now a crucial part of the evidence and the police will be using it to trace DNA samples and match them with those of the accused.
Post-mortem reports had confirmed that Choudhary had succumbed to a head injury she sustained after being struck by set of brass knuckles which the police found near her body.
Paramjit Singh Dahiya, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone IX, said, “Following the murder, we made inquiries with over 1,000 people who were in regular touch with Kritika. We then zeroed in on the two accused, identified as Shakeel Khan (33) and Basu Das (40). Shakeel had been in contact with Kritika for close to a year and a half.”
An officer said, “It was obviously a man’s shirt. We were probing the possibility of it belonging to a boyfriend or a lover. However, we had seen Khan and Das in a CCTV footage around Kritika’s hoaue. When we finally caught them, the shirt helped establish Khan’s presence at the scene of the crime. We will now send samples for DNA testing.”
Officers said Khan was a delivery boy for Asif Ali alias Sunny, a known drug peddler in the western suburbs, and Kritika owed Khan ₹6000, which he had been asking for since November last year.
An officer said, “Khan was arrested by the Anti Narcotics Cell of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in August last year and was released on bail in November. By the time of his release, demonetisation had come into effect and he was hard pressed for cash for daily expenses. He had, before his arrest, supplied Mephedrone to Kritika in Sunny’s absence. She owed him ₹6000 for the drugs. He started calling her and she kept evading him.”
The officer said Khan’s friend Das wanted borrow money, and Khan told him that Kritika owed him. The duo decided to intimidate Kritika into paying up and visited her on June 11. The officer said, “The duo told Kritika that they would not leave unless she paid them the full amount. Kritika said that she would start shouting for help and gather a crowd if they did not leave her house immediately. The threat infuriated Khan, who hit her on the head with the brass knuckles. Kritika fell to the floor, bleeding from the head, and could not be revived.”
Khan and Das then fled the scene. Khan moved from his Nallasopara house to a rented room in Malwani, and later stayed with a relative in Panvel, from where he was picked up on Monday. His questioning led the police to Das, who was picked up from his Govandi residence. Both were placed under arrest on Monday morning.
