It was one year ago that Vishal Verma a 22-year-old tailor from Rajasthan, had eloped with a minor girl and taken shelter at her sister's place in west Delhi's Uttam Nagar. Three days later, the girl's family members — on the pretext of getting them married — beat Verma to death and threw his body off a high-rise building in Ghaziabad.
A year later, on Thursday, the main accused — the girl's uncle — was arrested by Delhi Police's special cell. Police said the accused, Vikram Joshi, had been evading arrest for the past one year and had been changing residences in Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Rajasthan, Haryana, Noida, Ghaziabad and Baghpat.
Joshi, who was declared a proclaimed offender by a court, was carrying a reward of Rs 20,000 declared by Delhi Police. He was arrested from near a hotel in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Recalling the incident, senior officers said that on April 29, 2016, Verma had eloped with a minor girl of different caste from his village with who he was in love. "Both of them reached Vishal's sister's home in Uttam Nagar, to hide from their families who did not approve of their relationship. On May 2, the girl's father Mukesh Joshi, along with uncle Vikram Joshi and cousin Avinash Joshi, reached Uttam Nagar and convinced Vishal and his family members that they would allow him to marry the girl once she turns 18," said Pramod Singh Kushwah, DCP Special Cell.
After Vishal and his family agreed, instead of taking the couple to their village, the girl's family members abducted him and took him to a secluded building in Vijay Nagar, Ghaziabad. "Vishal was assaulted and beaten mercilessly by them and was thereafter pushed from a high rise building. A case of murder 302 was registered and the hunt for the accused was started," the officer said.
In April this year, a police team received information that Joshi had been spotted in Delhi and Ghaziabad. On Thursday, he was traced in Ahmedabad, and was apprehended from Sarkhej-Gandhi Nagar highway, Kushwah said.
During interrogation, Joshi told police that Vishal's act had brought dishonour to their family, as well as to their entire village and community. As a result, the family planned to eliminate him. Efforts to arrest the others wanted in this case, namely Mukesh and Avinash Joshi are being made, police said.
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