Man kills labourer, burns body to fake his own death for insurance claims; nabbed

A man faked his death allegedly for making insurance claim, but ran out of luck as the police nabbed him on suspicion that he had killed a labourer and burnt his body in his car.

Aakash, a resident of Chandigarh, was arrested on Tuesday from Palwal Railway Station in a joint operation of the Sirmour Police and the Government Railway Police, Haryana, Sirmaur Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani said Wednesday.

Prima facie, Aakash and his family wanted to grab the huge life insurance money, the value of which will be estimated after further investigation and interrogation of the accused, the SP said.

He said Aakash's nephew Ravi Kumar (29) was also involved in planning and executing the alleged crime and he was arrested on Monday from Himachal Pradesh's Nahan.

Elaborating, police said a case of accidental death was registered at Nahan police station on November 20, stating a car had collided with a parapet at Judda Ka Johar and it got completely burnt before police could arrive.

It was also stated that a person named Aakash had died in the alleged accident and got burnt with the vehicle, they said.

A team of Forensic Science Laboratory visited the spot the next day.

The SP said police suspected some foul play when Aakash's family started to pressure the police to release 'death certificate' from the very next day of the accident, he said.

"...and grew suspicious when a team of the Punjab Police came to Nahan a few days ago in search of a missing labourer from Rajasthan who was working with Aakash and was last in touch with him, the SP said.

Meanwhile, Ravi visited Nahan on December 3.

The SP said as suspicion grew, police nabbed Ravi from Nahan and produced him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, which sent him to five-days' police remand.

During interrogation, police found out that Ravi was with Aakash when he burnt his car and then they left for Haryana. Aakash was further planning to flee to Nepal, the SP said.

As per their plan, Aakash had deliberately collided his car with the parapet on the intervening night of November 19-20 and set it afire before police reached the spot, Malpani said.

A police team chased Aakash till Varanasi but, he managed to escape.

Finally, he was detained on December 4 at Palwal Railway Station while he was travelling in a train from Bihar to Delhi, the SP said.

The accused will be produced in a court to seek his police remand for interrogating him and finding out the modus operandi used to kill the unidentified labourer, police said.

A fresh case has been registered under section 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and both Aakash and Ravi have been arrested, the SP said.