Delhi: 3 held for killing man who resisted mobile snatching

New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) Three men, including a hotel employee, were arrested for allegedly stabbing a 25-year-old man to death after he resisted their attempt to snatch his mobile phone near Badarpur Bus Stand in southeast Delhi, an official on Tuesday said.

The accused, identified as Mohsin alias Noor (20), Deepak Suryavanshi (18) and Himanshu (21), were riding on a scooter, having a defective headlight, which was key to cracking the case, she said.

“The body of the deceased, identified as Makbul Akaram, a native of Bihar’s West Champaran who worked in Delhi, was found with a stab wound near Badarpur Bus Stand around 5:51 am on July 26. His mobile phone was missing, leading police to suspect robbery as the motive,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Aishwarya Sharma.

With no eyewitnesses and no identification documents, police launched a technical and field-level probe, registering a case under Section 103(1) (Murder) of the BNS.

The breakthrough came after investigators scanned more than 1,000 CCTV camera feeds from Delhi and Faridabad, tracing a scooty seen circling the area before murder.

Police located footage from Arpan Vihar that captured the suspects’ faces, she said.

The scooter, which had a defective headlight and was seen taking a convoluted route to evade detection, was key to cracking the case, police said.

Police identified one of the suspects as Mohsin, an employee of a hotel in Faridabad's Basantpur. His interrogation led police to his co-accused, Deepak and Himanshu, both residents of Molarband village in Delhi.

“During interrogation, the trio confessed that they were under the influence of drugs and had planned a robbery the previous night. Noor drove the scooty, while Deepak and Himanshu approached the victim. After snatching his phone, Himanshu stabbed him twice on Deepak’s instruction before they fled,” the senior police official said.

Mohsin, employed at the hotel for the past eight months, had developed a friendship with Himanshu and Deepak, both drug addicts and frequent visitors, police said.

All three had been staying together at the hotel for the past two to three days, consuming drugs and planning to commit a robbery, they said.

The recovered items include the deceased's mobile phone, the murder weapon — a knife — and the scooter used in the crime, police said.

Himanshu has six prior criminal cases, including snatching and theft, against him. Noor and Deepak have no previous criminal records, they said. PTI SSJ AS AS