Police use Google location data to nab 2 murder accused

Aided by Google's location data, the Delhi Police was able to arrest two people for allegedly killing a 60-year-old man, officials said Wednesday.

Accused Rajesh (35) and Sagar (30), residents of the Sundar Nagari area here, were arrested Tuesday for killing Ram Karan Verma, they said.

"On March 4, Sunil Verma, son of Ram Karan Verma, filed a case at Nand Nagari police station where he stated that his father was missing since March 2. Sunil alleged that Rajesh and Sagar were behind it," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur said.

A case of abduction was registered on March 20 and a probe launched, Thakur said.

He said as officials made very little headway after analysing call detail records (CDRs) of Rajesh and Sagar, police looked into the March 2 Google location data of one of the accused which showed that the person had visited the Lucknow Expressway that day.

When asked about the visit, the accused failed to give a satisfactory answer and ended up confessing to killing Verma and dumping his body near the expressway at Kotwali Nagar in Barabanki, Thakur said.

The accused disclosed that Verma had borrowed around Rs 18 lakh from them and was making excuses on being asked to return the money, he said.

On being pressured, the victim had even transferred a Ghaziabad property, worth Rs 10 lakh, to them but was not returning the remaining amount, police said.

Thereafter, the accused hatched a plan to kill Verma and invited him to visit Kumbh with them on March 2, the DCP said. The duo strangled the victim on the way, he added.

The body of the deceased has been recovered and a case under sections 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence) was registered in this connection, police added.