Man’s body found, killers withdrew cash using his ATM card

Sunil Kumar Bhatt

On Thursday evening, Sunil Kumar Bhatt sent two messages to his wife, asking her to check the licence plate of the private cab he had boarded. After the second message at 8.30 pm, his phone was switched off and his whereabouts unknown. On Saturday morning, Bhatt’s body was found in south Delhi’s Mahipalpur — he was murdered allegedly by the cab driver and his accomplice.

In the hours till his body was found, the men who abducted and murdered Bhatt drove around Delhi withdrawing money from several ATMs using his card. But instead of the Gurgaon Police investigating the transactions, Bhatt’s family searched every ATM Friday night where the transactions were reported for clues to where he might be. On Saturday morning, their search ended after they received photographs of his body.

After his wife filed a complaint, Gurgaon Police had registered a kidnapping case. Once the body was found, Delhi Police registered a murder case. Sources said the case is being investigated jointly by the Delhi Cantt police and Gurgaon Police.

Bhatt’s relative, Neeraj, said, “Gurgaon Police was of no help. They had asked us to look into the bank transactions to see if they were genuine. We went to Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank. PNB gave us details of seven transactions. ICICI bank refused since an FIR had not been registered.”

Gurgaon Police spokesperson Ravinder Kumar, “I was not informed about this. We will talk to his family members regarding the matter and verify the claims.” Bhatt’s cousin Chandrashekar Joshi said, “My brother told his wife he was in a press car. We asked people at the bus stand if they had seen such a car but no one had.” Bhatt, an engineer, hailed from Uttarakhand and lived in Gurgaon with his wife.