Two years after ex-cop went missing, three held for murder

PTI

New Delhi, October 1

Two years after a former Delhi Police woman constable went missing, the police have arrested three men for allegedly killing her and deceiving her family into believing that she was alive, the police said on Sunday.

Surender Singh (42), currently posted as constable with the Delhi Police, allegedly killed the 28-year-old woman after she refused to marry him. He was then serving as PCR van driver, a senior police officer said. Singh’s brother-in-law Ravin (26) and Rajpal (33) helped him in hiding the crime, the officer said.

Killed for rejecting marriage proposal

• The woman cop reportedly refused to marry Delhi Police constable Surender Singh, prompting the latter to kill her on September 8, 2021.
• Singh’s brother-in-law used to call victim’s family claiming that he had married the woman and they had been living happily.

The police recovered the skeletal remains of the victim from the Pushta area of Burari and sent them for DNA profiling to ascertain if they belong to the woman, the officer added. The victim had resigned from the Delhi Police after she was selected as a police sub-inspector in Uttar Pradesh.

She was meanwhile staying as a paying guest in the Mukherjee Nagar area here. A missing report was lodged at the Mukherjee Nagar police station on October 20, 2021. Her family alleged that she had been missing since September 8, 2021.

Despite efforts by the police, the former woman constable could not be traced, Special CP (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said. Based on the complaint of the victim’s mother who suspected her daughter was kidnapped, charges of abduction were added to the FIR on April 12, 2023 and an in-depth investigation was ordered by the DCP, Yadav said.

The police arrested Rajpal first and nabbed Ravin on his instance. Singh, the prime accused, was finally arrested on September 30, he added. During interrogation, Singh told the police that he had a heated argument with the woman on September 8, 2021, following which he took her to Burari Pushta, where he first strangled her and then drowned her in a nullah near Pushta, the DCP said.

To show that the victim was alive, Singh took his brother-in-law Ravin’s help. Ravin used to call the victim’s family from different phone numbers and identified himself as Arvind. He told them he had got married to the woman, he added.

To misguide the investigation, he dropped copies of the victim’s identity proofs at various places in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. He called the woman’s parents from these places and told them they were living happily, the DCP said. Rajpal had helped Ravin in securing a SIM card using fake documents, he added. The trio have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the police said.