Woman held for ‘killing’ bizman

Ghaziabad: A woman has been arrested in connection with the death of Ajay Panchal, the owner of a cable manufacturing unit, whose body was found in Link Road area on Tuesday. Police said the she was in a relationship with Ajay. She and her husband wanted to extort money from Ajay after blackmailing him but ended up killing him.
Later at night, the driver of the auto in which the businessman’s body was ferried, was also arrested.
Police said, the woman has been identified as Pinky Bhatt. Her husband’s name is Bunty and they used to stay in Arthala village, Sahibabad. Bunty is on the run, police said. “Ajay knew Pinky’s family for almost four years as Bunty's sister used to work in his factory,” a police officer said.
Pinky and Bunty shifted into Arthala two months back and Pinky allegedly started calling up Panchal almost daily. Soon, they were in a relationship, the police said. She would call him from one of her neighbour’s phone and Ajay and Pinky would go out together often.
Kalanidhi Naithani, SSP, Ghaziabad, said Pinky has told the police that Bunty had made a plan to call Ajay to their house and then catch them together. Bunty would then blackmail Ajay and demand Rs 50 lakhs. The plan was to leave the city after taking the money.
On Monday, after Ajay, who stayed at Rajendra Nagar, spoke to his wife, he got a call from Pinky and she invited him to her house for lunch. Ajay reached and had tea with Pinky. As they got intimate, Bunty and his friend Kamal entered the house, as per the plan, police said. They had also shot a video in which Ajay and Pinky could be seen together.
“Bunty started telling Ajay that he will tell his wife about Pinky and asked for money. Around 1.45 pm, an argument had broken out and Bunty and Kamal started thrashing Ajay. Then Bunty and Kamal strangled Ajay with Pinky’s duppatta,” the SSP said.
Around 10 pm, Bunty sent Pinky to his sister’s house in Sahibabad and around 2.45 am on Tuesday, Bunty and Kamal put Ajay’s body in a sack and took it near Vashundhara flyover in Link road area in an auto. They dumped the body there and threw Ajay’s phone and wallet into the Hindon river,” SSP said.
Around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, police found the auto plying near Mohan Nagar. The driver, Iqbal, from Lal Kuan, had been ferrying passengers. “Iqbal has said that Bunty called him around 10 pm on Monday to book the auto. Bunty said his uncle was not well and has to be taken to a hospital. When Iqbal saw the body, he enquired and Bunty said it was his uncle who died after a heart attack. But when Iqbal protested as Bunty was dumping the body, Bunty promised to pay him money,” Vishnu Kaushik, SHO, Sahibabad, said.