Two men were arrested from Rajasthan on 23rd October by the police of Delhi’s Central District for allegedly murdering a 22-year-old acquaintance who was formerly in a relationship with the girlfriend of one of the men. The accused were identified as Sanjay Buccha (22), a computer assistant for a Kolkata-based sharebroker, and his friend Sitaram Suthar (21), a carpenter.
Notably, the police made use of Google Maps Timeline to find the body of the victim Manish, a common smartphone feature that tracks the recent route taken.
According to Shweta Chauhan, DCP (Central), ” The complainant Bhagirath, a Rajasthan native, reported that his son Manish, who worked at a mobile store in Karol Bagh’s Gaffar Market, had been missing since the previous evening, and his car had also been found abandoned in the Dhaula Kuan area with bloodstains on the seat. Manish’s phone was also switched off.”
The DCP said that CCTV footage near the store and his car’s location were examined, along with his call detail records. It was found that two people from Rajasthan’s Churu district were constantly in touch with him. A team was sent to Rajasthan and a raid conducted, after which the accused confessed to the crime during interrogation.
According to the DCP, Sanjay’s girlfriend was earlier in a relationship with Manish, who was still contacting her, because of which he decided to murder Manish. The accused came to Delhi on the 21st and called Manish to meet them. After he came in his car to meet them, they offered him alcohol, and asked him to delete the contact and photographs of Sanjay’s girlfriend from his phone. When he refused, they strangled him with a rope, and damaged his phone, and stole Rs 20,000 from his wallet.
They were unable to find a secluded area to dump the body, and roamed with it on the back seat of the car for two hours before dumping it in a sewer manhole opposite the Army EME HQ in Delhi Cantt. They then fled back to Rajasthan.
Police located the body using the Timeline feature on the phones of the accused, since they were unfamiliar with Delhi and were not sure where they had dumped the body.
A case has been filed at the Karol Bagh station under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (disappearance of evidence).
