Vaishali murder: Adopted minor daughter, her friend apprehended

Police said the two were traced and nabbed from Jalgaon and brought to Kaushmabi in Ghaziabad, where they admitted to the crime during sustained interrogation.

The Ghaziabad police on Thursday took into custody a 14-year-old girl, the adopted daughter of a 58-year-old man who was found murdered in their flat in Vaishali on September 22, and her 23-year-old friend from Jalgaon in Maharashtra, on charges of planning and executing the murder.

Police said the two were traced and nabbed from Jalgaon and brought to Kaushmabi in Ghaziabad, where they admitted to the crime during sustained interrogation.

The girl was legally adopted by the couple -- the deceased and his wife -- about a week after she was born 14 years ago, police said. She is currently a class 7 student at a private school in Vaishali and lived with her parents till the day of the murder on September 22. That evening, the CCTV cameras caught her leaving home with her schoolbag around 5pm, in the company of a young man.

Later in the evening, when her mother returned home from her office in Delhi, she found her husband dead, with his limbs tied up and mouth taped shut. The police, quoting the autopsy report, said the man was strangled to death with a rope.

“A case of murder was lodged at the Kaushambi police station and the mother raised suspicions about her daughter’s involvement. After scanning the girl’s social media profiles, we came across the mobile number of a person (the suspect), who was in regular touch with the girl on chats and video calls. Our teams traced the man to Jalgaon and found the girl with him. When questioned, they admitted to planning and executing the murder,” said Gyanendra Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (city 2).

Asked about the motive, the police said relations between the girl and her father were strained after she went away with a 19-year-old male friend (not the murder suspect) about three months ago and a case of rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act was lodged against the 19-year-old by her father at the Kaushambi police station.

“The father wanted to go forward with the case but the girl went against him and gave statements in favour of the suspect who is still in jail. About seven to eight months ago, the girl got in touch with the present suspect. She had frequent online conversations with the 23-year-old man and allegedly told him that her father often beat her and she wanted to escape the abuse. The suspect fell for her emotional appeals, and conspired with her to kill him,” said Prabhat Dixit, SHO of Kaushambi police station.

He travelled by bus to Indore, then to Gwalior, and from there to Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi on the day of the murder on September 22. Police said he arrived at the girl’s house in Vaishali around 11am by which time she had sent her father out to fetch some household items from the market.

“That was the first time she met her online friend in person. Her father later arrived from the market and she and he together had their lunch, while her friend hid in the bathroom. When her father went to take a nap, the two overpowered him and tied up his hands and feet with a rope. They also taped his mouth shut and strangled him. Thereafter, the girl packed her clothes in her schoolbag, took several credit cards belonging to her parents from the house and left with her friend,” the SP said.

The police said that the 23-year-old suspect has studied up to class 5 and is the son of a daily wager in Jalgaon. He borrowed money from a friend to travel to Vaishali, they said. After the murder, the two went to Akshardham in Delhi and booked a cab to Agra. From there, they took a bus to Jalgaon and kept changing locations and even planned to visit Surat. Police said at hotels and lodges they stayed, they gave her age as 19 years.

A police team kept tracking the two and finally brought them to Ghaziabad late Wednesday night.

“We also recovered the credit cards which the girl had taken away with her. The two narrated the entire sequence of events and these were corroborated by electronic evidences,” SP Singh said.