Cousin held for Bhiwandi girl’s murder

MUMBAI: Crime Branch officials have identified and arrested the biker, Santosh, who was suspected to have kidnapped and murdered nine-year-old Neelam Gupta. Santosh has been identified as Neelam’s cousin. 

On December 19, 2007, while returning to home from their school in Bhiwandi, Neelam and her sister Priyanka, 6, were kidnapped by a biker and taken to Ganeshpuri. Priyanka escaped and was found by police officials. Neelam’s body was found abandoned in Koparli village on January 4.

“While investigating the case, we came to know that their cousin brother Santosh had been to Ganeshpuri on his bike when the two girls were kidnapped. We took him into custody and he confessed to the crime,” said senior police inspector Abhay Yewle from the Bhiwandi crime branch.

When police officials questioned Santosh, he said that he was jealous of his uncle’s growing business and was suffering heavy losses in the power-loom business which he had started. So, he wanted to hurt his uncle and his family members, police said.

Neelam’s father Rambachan Gupta said: “I cannot believe that Santosh, who is the son of my elder brother, did this to me. He is not the killer and there is someone else behind all this”.

Yewle added, “It was only when we nabbed Santosh that we came to know that he had been threatening Priyanka to ensure that she would not reveal his identity to anyone. We are interrogating Santosh to find if there were other people involved.”
 
s_divyesh@dnaindia.net