Missing Captain murdered

After he revoked will he had executed in the name of accused

The mystery behind the disappearance of a retired Army Captain from his house at Satya Niketan here in 2007 has been solved with the arrest of his domestic help, who allegedly murdered him after he revoked the will he had executed in the name of the accused.

Over three years after Captain Anurag Raj went missing from his house, his sister lodged a complaint with the police. At his residence, she found a hand-written will dated March 26, 2007, wherein he had raised suspicion about a threat to his life from his domestic help Bhullai Ram. The police then interrogated the suspect, but found nothing incriminating.

The police registered a kidnapping case last October and on the direction of the Delhi High Court, transferred the probe to the District Investigations Unit led by Inspector Virender Singh.

Statements of Captain Raj's bank account revealed his credit card was last used in Lucknow and March 2007 onwards, money from the account was withdrawn using self en-cashed cheques under different signatures. Of the 21 cheques in question, all bore forged signatures of Captain Raj and five had signatures of Bhullai Ram as the bearer.

The police found that Bhullai Ram had a criminal past. Based on the findings, they arrested him on Tuesday. During interrogation, he purportedly disclosed that when he refused to repay the money he had borrowed, Captain Raj had asked him to leave the house and tore the will he had executed in his name. The accused then hit Captain Raj in the head with a double-barrel gun, smothered him with a pillow, stuffed the body in a sack and kept it in a trunk to evade detection.

Bhullai Ram then allegedly took the body to Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh in the victim's car and buried it inside his house. In 2011, he dumped the skeletal remains into a river. At his instance, a forensic team found bones, teeth and hair besides bloodstained pieces of cloth from his house. Efforts were also made to trace the remains from the river, but in vain.

The police have launched a hunt for Bhullai Ram's brother Sahaj who had also allegedly forged the victim's signature to withdraw money from his bank account.