Delhi man strangles father over property, chops body into pieces

NEW DELHI: A youth strangled his disabled father and then chopped his body into more than 50 pieces for allegedly refusing to transfer the ownership of a shop to him in east Delhi’s Shahdara on Monday night. Aman Agarwal then packed the pieces of his father’s body in two bags and connived with a friend to leave them in garbage dumps in the area. However, the plan was thwarted by police reaching the scene and catching the two men in the act.

The murdered man, Sandesh Kumar Agarwal, 57, owned a cosmetics shop on the ground floor of his house in Burra Bazar area in Farash Bazar. His son, Aman, 24, ran an eatery at its side. Relatives revealed that Aman was keen to expand his business and wanted his father to merge the cosmetic shop with the eatery. However, Agarwal was unwilling to do this, and there were frequent arguments between father and son about the matter.
Aadesh Agarwal, the elder brother of Sandesh, said he kept an eye on his brother and Aman from across the road. He also had a CCTV camera outside his house. When he found his brother’s shop closed on Monday, he asked Aman about it and was told that his parents were away in Manali. However, Aadesh claimed to have been observing that unusually for him, since the previous week Aman seldom left his shop and he felt something was wrong.
On Tuesday night, Aadesh observed Aman carrying two bags to the Hyundai Verna car belonging to Ayush, a friend. “Blood seemed to be dripping from one of the bags, so I called the cops,” Aadesh said. Police reached the spot and discovered the heinous crime. Aman had wrapped the body parts in aluminium foil and stuffed the head into one bag, the rest in other bags.
Meghna Yadav, DCP (Shahdara), said Aman was arrested and Ayush also taken into custody. “We have registered a case of murder and destruction of evidence against Aman, while Ayush has been booked for aiding him,” she said.
Aman claimed to police that he had plotted the murder for a week after learning that the rest of his family — his mother, brother and sister — would be leaving for a vacation on Monday evening. He had planned to dispose of his father’s body on Monday night, but his uncle arriving to ask him about the closed shop forced him to postpone the act. On Tuesday morning, he chopped the body with a meat cleaver and then went to his shop as usual before roping in Ayush to help him get rid of the pieces later in the day.