College friend held for man’s murder in northeast Delhi

New Delhi:

More than a month after an engineer was found dead with his head crushed at his rented house in northeast Delhi’s Khajoori Khas, the police on Friday arrested his college friend for the murder.

Investigators said the alleged killer, 28-year-old Pranjal Deka, had borrowed Rs 3,000 from the victim, Amit Prasad. They said Deka killed Prasad after an argument over returning the money.

To avoid suspicion, police said, Deka, a resident of Barpeta in Assam, fled with Prasad’s mobile phone and used it to message the victim’s wife and colleagues. Police said they recovered Prasad’s mobile phone from Deka.

Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Ved Prakash Surya said that on October 25, they received information about a man’s body lying in his rented house in Tukmirpur Extension.

A police team broke open the house and found that Prasad had been bludgeoned to death with a brick and a wooden plank.

“Preliminary probe revealed Prasad had not attended office for two days and was not in touch with his colleagues or relatives. CCTV footage near his house and his phone call records revealed a man used to visit Prasad’s house regularly. He was identified as his college friend Pranjal Deka. Both had studied B.Tech from a university in Shillong,” Surya said.

The DCP said search for the suspect began and they soon found that he was involved in a criminal case in Assam. “A police team sent to Guwahati gathered information from his relatives, friends and acquaintances but found he was not in touch with any of them. On November 8, following specific information that he had fled Guwahati in a train, the police team arrested him on board the North East Express near the Ghaziabad railway station,” he said.

Deka allegedly told police he had suffered heavy losses in his business and was jailed for two years in a rape case.

“Once out, he was jobless and started visiting Delhi frequently. During his visits, he used to stay with Prasad. He said on October 23 night, they had an argument when Prasad allegedly humiliated him for not returning around Rs 3,000. In a fit of rage, he killed Prasad in his asleep. He said he took Prasad’s mobile phone and ATM card and later withdrew Rs 2,500. He kept messaging Prasad’s wife and colleagues from the phone until his body was recovered,” the officer said.