ormer Delhi Councillor Krishan Pehelwan along with three of his associates have been arrested for criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence in the double murder case. They allegedly dumped the bodies after the crime at Pehelwan’s office in Najafgarh on Friday night.
Police are also probing Pehelwan’s role in the murder. One of the angles of the probe is that the history-sheeter criminal-politician suspected that the murdered duo had come to eliminate him in the first place.
The number of arrest in connection with the murders has reached five with Pehelwan’s employee Joginder alias Pollard who shot the two ex-BSF personnel turned PSOs being the only man accused of murder in the case. According to the police, after coming to know of the murders by Joginder around midnight, Pehelwan instructed the latter to keep the office locked and hide the bodies until he himself arrives at the spot.
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“He then called his associates, Pramod, Tillu and Manoj and removed the evidence one by one. The CCTV footages were removed first and then the room was cleaned and traces of blood stains on the floor were removed as were the bedsheets,” said a police officer.
After destroying the evidence, the four drove to a hospital in an SUV with the bodies and dumped them on stretcher.
It was from the hospital authorities that police came to know of the incident.
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During interrogation, Pehelwan claimed he was unaware of the incident. His wife Neelam later said that they had video evidence to suggest that he was at his residence at the time of the incident.
“Some of these claims as well as the one where he claimed that the murders were committed outside his premises were busted when his locations were found to be the same, which the SUV had traced,” said the officer.
Investigators further found that Pehelwan feared losing political clout after the death of his brother former MLA Bharat Singh. Further, the deceased Ashok Kumar and Fauzi were working with a former financer of Pehelwan who was deemed to be a contender for his position.
“Since Pehelwan helped destroy evidence, we suspect that he had a motive behind the murder, however that will become clear during the course of investigation,” said a police source.
The four were produced before a court on Sunday and sent to 14 days’ judicial custody.
The number of arrests has reached five with three more aides of Pehelwan also in the net