Delhi: Out on parole, man in prison again for ‘killing’ friend

A month after a 32-year-old man got out of Mandoli jail on parole, he has landed in prison again for allegedly killing his friend. Police said the accused, Devender Kumar alias Kalta, was angry that his friend was dating his girlfriend. He and two of his associates were nabbed from Northeast Delhi’s Jyoti Nagar last week.

DCP (Northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said they received a call on March 16 about a decomposed body lying in a garbage bin near Loni Road. “The body was shifted to the mortuary. The victim was identified as Vishal Lal (23), a registered criminal of Harsh Vihar involved in 21 cases. After a post-mortem, the body was returned to his family,” he said.

During investigation, a police team scanned over 100 CCTVs around the place where the body was found and in nearby areas. “One of the cameras showed Vishal with three persons near Picnic Park at Loni roundabout on March 12. After extensive efforts, the three were identified as Devender, who is also a registered criminal of Harsh Vihar involved in 10 cases, Praveen Kumar, who is involved in a murder case, and a juvenile,” Sain said.

Police found that Devender had been arrested in an Arms Act case and was released on parole on March 6. “While in prison, he came to know through some of his associates that his girlfriend was seen along with Vishal and she was also avoiding him. He confronted her but she lied. When he got out of jail, he observed Vishal’s movements and found that he was talking to his girlfriend. He then decided to eliminate him and shared his plan with his associates,” police sources said.

Police approached Vishal’s sister Anju after they found his body. “She informed police that her brother left home on March 12 saying he was going to attend a party for two days; she also disclosed the names of his friends. It was the accused who called Vishal for a party but they stabbed him to death and dumped his body from a moving car,” an officer said.

“During questioning, we found that the motive of the murder was a love angle. While Devender was in jail, Vishal and his girlfriend became good friends. He was annoyed with that development and when he got out on parole, he and his associates killed Vishal,” DCP Sain said.