The Hindu : New Delhi News : Zoo murder case solved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Zoo murder case solved

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 18. A 24-year-old graphic designer was arrested by the South Delhi police today for allegedly murdering his 22-year-old lover, whose body was found near the tiger enclosure at the Delhi Zoo on Saturday. The accused killed the young woman allegedly because she used to threaten him that she would severe ties with him if he did not marry her soon.

A resident of Daryaganj in Central Delhi, Kanchan Verma was found murdered inside the zoo around 11-30 a.m. on Saturday. Her identity was established when her family members upon watching the news about a young woman's murder in the zoo contacted the police and subsequently identified the deceased as Kanchan.

Kanchan's father, Pradeep Verma, told the police that she had gone out around 9-30 a.m. when no one but her younger brother, Nitin, was home. Her mother, Kusum, was in a hospital where she had been operated for ulcer, while her brother, Vishal, a second year student of Zakir Hussain College, had gone to meet his friends. Kanchan had left behind a newspaper stating she would be back within 15 minutes.

Till last month, Kanchan had been working as a customer care executive-cum-office assistant for a business associate of a well renowned mobile service-providing firm.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Delhi), Pravir Ranjan, investigations revealed that Kanchan used to frequently meet a person named Rahul, upon which the police rounded up all persons bearing the name Rahul living near Kanchan's residence. During questioning, one of them disclosed that Kanchan's neighbour named Nikhil Choudhary was having an affair with her. Subsequently, the police went to his residence. Without being asked, Nikhil told the police that he was not Rahul and therefore not the person they were looking for. "This raised suspicion about his involvement after which the police frisked him and found a newspaper cutting about Kanchan's murder in his pocket," said Mr. Ranjan, adding that Nikhil kept denying his involvement.

Nikhil was then taken to the scene of crime where he broke down and confessed to having brutally murdered Kanchan. During interrogation, Nikhil disclosed that he and Kanchan were in love for the past four years and till last month he had been dropping her to her Green Park office on his motorcycle every morning. While speaking about him with her friends and colleagues, Kanchan addressed him as Rahul.

An introvert person, Nikhil, revealed that for the past several weeks Kanchan had been fighting with him for getting married early. He would ask her to give him some time to get settled financially upon which Kanchan threatened to leave him and marry one of her colleagues instead.

"Nikhil was very possessive about Kanchan and did not like the way she interacted with other boys. Afraid of losing her to someone, he began conspiring to eliminate Kanchan," said Mr. Ranjan. On Saturday, Kanchan called up Nikhil from a public booth and asked him to meet her at Appu Ghar. Nikhil, who had reached outside his office, then asked her to meet at Delhi Zoo. Thinking that the time was ripe to eliminate her, Nikhil first went to Matia Mahal and bought a razor and then reached the zoo.

The duo walked around various enclosures in the zoo for a while after that they sat on a bench in an isolated place where they again got into an altercation over the issue of marriage. They were near the tigers' enclosure when Nikhil suddenly gagged her from behind and slit her throat with the knife. While a profusely bleeding Kanchan fell down, Nikhil kept watching her die from a distance and then fled. The police have recovered the murder weapon and are conducting further investigations.

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