NEW DELHI: At 5am on Aug 10, the alleyways of Ratiya Marg in south Delhi awoke to a robbery and brutal murder. Inside a ransacked house, 55-year-old Munna Lal, a small-time builder, lay in a pool of blood. Drawers were open and clothes were strewn on the floor. Emergency responders rushed Lal to AIIMS. But he was declared brought dead.It looked like a brazen midnight robbery had turned deadly. Lal’s wife told police she saw the body in the morning and suspected some people may have entered the home through the terrace.
The perfect murder that wasn’t.
However, police said they soon found the man had been killed by his wife and her lover, who allegedly helped stage the scene to resemble a burglary. While forensic experts found Lal had been drugged, strangled, struck on the head and face with a blunt object, and electrocuted on his private parts, police also identified several anomalies at the crime scene that led them to suspect the killing was not the work of burglars.
Bid to pass off cold-blooded plot as robbery gone wrong
While the rooms were upended to mimic a violent break-in, portions of the floor bore faint streak marks where someone had hastily attempted to scrub away blood trails and wipe down evidence.When police analysed CCTV footage from neighbouring lanes, officers tracked a masked figure slipping into the premises at 1.45 am and exiting at 3.15 am.The CCTV also captured suspicious, coordinated movements between a woman and an associate outside the house during those exact hours.When a special team formed under Joint CP Vijay Kumar and DCP Anant Mittal questioned Lal’s wife, it revealed a murder born out of infidelity, a bitter marriage and the tight-fisted habits of a husband who refused to provide money.According to police, Lal’ss 45-year-old wife Manju colluded with her 20-year-old lover, Chaman, to carry out the killing. Manju offered Chaman Rs 5 lakh and long-term financial assistance to eliminate her husband. She also planned to live with him.On the night of Aug 9, Manju spiked her husband’s dinner with sleeping pills given by Chaman. Once Lal drifted into a helpless stupor, the two rigged live electric wires to inflict electric shocks on his private parts, bludgeoned him repeatedly with a heavy wooden stick, and strangled him.Manju paid Chaman Rs 20,000 in cash on the spot and helped mess up the house to make it look like a burglary gone wrong.“South district police have solved the case and arrested Manju and Chaman along with a third associate named Kishan for harbouring the accused. We have seized Rs 15,000 cash,” said DCP Mittal.
