The victim, Krishna Khosla, lived with his wife in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash II. (Express photo)Disgruntled with his 91-year-old employer, a domestic help in South Delhi’s GK-II allegedly drugged him and his wife and stuffed his body inside a fridge, which he then loaded into a tempo parked downstairs. But the alleged plan — to kidnap him for ransom — took a fatal turn when the accused opened the fridge after a while and realised that the victim, a former United Nations official, had suffocated to death.
According to police, the 28-year-old domestic help, Kishan, and four of his accomplices have been arrested. “During questioning, Kishan told police he was fed up with the man’s ‘taunting and abuses’, and began plotting his kidnapping a month and a half ago,” said a police officer.
While the domestic help drugged Kishan Dev Khosla and his wife Saroj on Saturday evening by serving them spiked tea, Saroj only woke up around 5 am on Sunday, and realised that her husband was missing, said police. She also noticed that their fridge was gone.
Police said that during questioning, Kishan claimed that his plan was to just kidnap Khosla and demand ransom from his family. Among those arrested is Pradeep, the tempo driver.
“After Khosla lost consciousness, Kishan put him in a fridge and carried it to Pradeep’s vehicle with the help of his accomplices. They drove the tempo a few kilometres and when they opened the refrigerator, they realised that Khosla had suffocated. They then buried him at a vacant plot in Sangam Vihar,” an officer said.
Shami, the guard posted outside the couple’s house, said, “I saw Kishan walk out of the house with a refrigerator which he then loaded inside a tempo… I thought it was an old refrigerator he was taking for repair.”
Pradeep’s brother Brijpal Upadhyay claimed he wasn’t aware the fridge had a body inside. The tempo was recovered from outside Pradeep’s residence.
Khosla is survived by his wife and two sons — one lives in Australia, the other at another block in GK-II. Khosla used to work in the UN and travelled extensively to the Middle East for projects, an officer said.
A neighbour said that the couple moved to the rented house two years ago. “Uncle used to go out for a walk every morning but for the last two months, he had stopped as he had been unwell. I believe he had faith in Kishan, and even trusted him with his ATM card,” he said.
Joint CP (Southern Range) Devesh Srivastava said: “On Sunday morning, a PCR call was received from his family and a team rushed to the spot. The accused are leading us to the location of the body.” Police are probing the family’s claims that the help owed them money.
Additional DCP (South) Parvinder Singh said, “The accused had rented a one-room set with a courtyard in Tigri, Sangam Vihar, where they took the victim. After discovering he died inside the refrigerator, they buried his body in the courtyard.”
