Delhi: Married man kills live-in partner, gets caught while looking for lawyer
NEW DELHI: A 39-year-old married man was arrested for “killing his live-in partner” as she was “pressuring him to leave” his wife and children and settle with her, a police officer said on Friday. The accused, identified as Pankaj Kumar Mehto, a native of Samastipur district in Bihar, was nabbed after a massive manhunt across seven states that took several months.
According to the police, on August 26, an information regarding a female body lying on the roof of a house in a pool of blood, was received at Nangloi police station. The deceased was identified as 32-year-old Tamanna. The property owner told police that the deceased, along with her two children and live-in partner, was residing as a tenant. Pankaj was not present at the house during the incident.
“During the investigation, it was discovered that the accused was a permanent resident of Samastipur, Bihar, and had in-laws in West Bengal,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (outer) Jimmy Chiram said.
Raids in seven states, namely West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, and Jammu & Kashmir, at the residences of the accused’s relatives and friends, were conducted and all went in vain with no clues of the accused.
But finally, after four months of search, the accused Pankaj was arrested from Gokhale Market, near Tis Hazari, in old Delhi when he was searching for a lawyer to get an anticipatory bail. During the interrogation, the accused revealed that he had been in a live-in relationship with the deceased for the last six years and was allegedly pressuring him to leave his wife and children. “In frustration, he struck her with a hard wooden object and later strangled her with a rope,” said the DCP. Further investigations are underway, he added.
Accused held from court
According to police, during the investigations, it was found that the accused Pankaj who was living with the woman at Nangloi of west Delhi, had a permanent address of Bihar while his in-laws were in Bengal. After 4 months of search, Pankaj was nabbed from Tis Hazari court when he was searching a lawyer for getting bail