Man gets himself killed for insurance

In a bizarre episode, a man gave a supari for his own murder in Lakhimpur Kheri district of central Uttar Pradesh. The killing was carried out as planned but the police got the better of the conspirators and unveiled the fact that the murder was meant only to get a heavy insurance amount.

Harish Gupta, a senior BJP leader, was found dead a little distance away from his house in Lakhimpur on September 20. The post-mortem analysis had concluded his death was caused by ‘throttling’ but there were no other leads for the police to work on.

Lakhimpur district police chief Dalbir Singh Yadav told DNA that Gupta’s close friend Shatrohan Lodh spilled the beans on intense interrogation.

“He told us that Gupta had asked him to carry out his (Gupta’s) own murder as the entire family was neck deep in debt,” he said. Gupta had got insurance policies totalling Rs77 lakh while his family was under a debt of over Rs 50 lakh. “He told Shatrohan that if he (Gupta) was killed, the family would be able to pay off the debt and live comfortably,” Yadav said.

Shatrohan refused to kill Gupta himself but hired another person, Ram Asrey, to carry out the plan. The day before he was to be killed, Gupta sent out registered letters to the district magistrate, SP, and some of his friends and relatives saying that he could be killed by his business partner to dress up his murder as a genuine one.