Lawyer, wife kill client over money dispute, stuff body in trolley bag packed with cement in Raipur

A lawyer and his wife have been arrested here for allegedly killing a 58-year-old man over a monetary dispute, and dumping the body after stuffing it in a bag filled with wet cement, police said on Wednesday.

Lawyer Ankit Upadhyay (31) and his wife Shivani Sharma (24) allegedly conspired to kill Kishore Paikara, Upadhyay's client. Paikara had been demanding that Upadhyay return Rs 30 lakh borrowed from him, Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Lal Umed Singh told reporters.

Vinay Yadu (23) and Suryakant Yadu (21) were also arrested for allegedly helping the couple dispose of the body, he said.

Paikara was killed at a rented house in Indraprastha Colony on the morning of June 21, said Singh.

The body was discovered on the morning of June 23 after some passersby reported foul smell emanating from a big trunk left on the roadside near Diprapara drain in the same area. The police found a red trolley bag inside.

The victim, his legs tied and the throat slit, was encased in cement inside the trolley bag.

Five teams of the Anti-Crime and Cyber Unit and D D Nagar Police Station were formed to probe the case, SSP Singh said.

CCTV footage showed that three men and a woman had transported the trunk in the boot of a car from Indraprastha Colony.

The accused had fitted the car with a fake number plate, but the police still identified its owner who said he had sold it to Ankit Upadhyay, a resident of Satyam Vihar, Raipura.

The police also found that the trunk had been purchased from Gole Bazar area and payment made online through Shivani Sharma's account. It had been transported to a house in Indraprastha Colony in an e-rickshaw.

The house owner told police that Upadhyay and his wife had rented it only a week ago.

The couple, in the meantime, fled to Delhi by a flight on the night of June 23. Raipur police immediately alerted their Delhi counterparts, and the two were taken into custody at the airport after they landed in the national capital.

Upadhyay told the police that apart from being a lawyer, he sold and purchased land, and had helped Paikara sell his house in Bajrang Nagar here for Rs 30 lakh.

He had then borrowed the amount from Paikara for some personal work. The victim was demanding it back, which allegedly led to the conspiracy to murder him.

Upadhyay allegedly bought a second-hand car using a fake Aadhaar card which he himself had fabricated, and rented a house in Indraprastha Colony. On June 21, Upadhyay drove Paikara, who could not walk, in his car to the rented house where the couple allegedly murdered him by slitting his throat with a knife, SSP Singh said.

After disposing of the body on June 23, they fled to Delhi the same night.

The Alto car used in the crime, two two-wheelers, and five mobile phones have been seized from the possession of the accused, Singh said, adding that further probe was on.