Less than a fortnight after they arrested a 26-year-old man for brutally murdering his friend in Nallasopara, a team from the Pelhar police nabbed his partner-in-crime from a remote village in Haryana.
According to the police, they were informed about the presence of a decomposed body lying in a drain adjacent to the highway in Nallasopara on May 10. An accidental death report (ADR) was registered at the local police station. The police recovered a piece of paper from the trouser pocket the deceased scribbled with four letters – ESEL.
After surfing the online search engine to find clues about ESEL, the police team found nearly 150 mobile numbers related to establishments matching the letters. The police established contact on the phone numbers and zeroed-in to a studio in Mankhurd. It came to light that Santosh Kumar Yadav, who provided junior artists for film shoots in the studio had been missing since May 7.
The police established contact with his family members, which led to confirmation that the body was of Yadav. Post-mortem reports also confirmed death due to head injury, prompting the police to convert the ADR into a case of murder.
Investigations revealed that Yadav had recently bagged a contract to provide junior artists, which had angered his colleague Sunny Sunil Singh, 26, who is also in the same profession. Later, Singh was arrested and he revealed the identity of his accomplice Rahul Sohan Pal, 30, who had fled the city.
On the virtue of electronic surveillance, the police found that Pal was holed up somewhere in Haryana. A team left for Haryana and managed to apprehend Pal from Jajru – a remote village located in the Ballabgarh tehsil of Faridabad district – with the help of their local counterparts. The accused had invited Yadav for a binge session in Nallasopara, following which they lifted a stone and smashed his head repeatedly leading to his death due to serious head injuries. The duo has been booked under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence related to the offence) of the Indian Penal Code.
