The Hindu : Body of missing doctor found

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 11, 2003

National

National

Body of missing doctor found

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 10. The charred body of Raj Kumar Gupta — a doctor at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here who had been missing since Friday last — has been found on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Highway. The Delhi police have arrested a woman, her husband and her two employees.

A city court has remanded them to police custody for four days.

Police said Dr. Gupta had left the hospital around 1-30 p.m. on Friday and when he did not return home till late in the night, his wife lodged a police complaint. Later, Dr. Gupta's family received a call demanding Rs. 1 crore for his safe release.

Police said that Dr. Gupta's wife suspected a 35-year-old woman, Meenu Deewan, a resident of Vasant Vihar. Dr. Gupta had treated her 12 years ago.

At a press conference here, the Joint Commissioner of Police, Northern Range, Ranjit Narain, said that the two had developed a relationship.

Suspecting that Meenu, who was married to K.S. Sirish for the past seven years, could be involved in the murder, police picked her up for questioning on Tuesday. Interrogation, police claimed, revealed that Meenu Deewan had killed Dr. Gupta along with two of her employees, Deepak and Amit.

Police said that Meenu revealed that her proximity with Dr. Gupta was creating problems in her married life. She made monetary demands on Dr. Gupta hoping that he would distance himself from her.

Meenu, who ran a company dealing in credit cards, had asked Dr. Gupta help her out financially. When that did not happen, she allegedly decided to eliminate him.

On the fateful day, police claimed, Meenu asked Dr. Gupta to come to her office. There she, and her employees, Deepak and Amit, overpowered him and killed him. Later in the night they took the body in Dr. Gupta's car and drove towards Haryana and set it afire at an isolated stretch on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Highway. To misguide the police, Meenu had told Amit and Deepak to make a ransom call to Dr. Gupta's wife from his mobile phone. She disclosed that she told everything to her husband a day after the murder.

The Delhi police crosschecked with the Haryana police, who confirmed that they had found a charred body on December 7. Since the body has been charred beyond recognition, police have sent it to a lab tests.

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