The young hair-stylist could not have imagined that when he invited his ‘friends’ to his south Delhi home for a night of food, alcohol and sex, it would be his last night.
Bimal Gurung, brand ambassador of Karastase Hair Products and working with a prominent saloon in west Delhi, was murdered at his Vasant Vihar residence a week ago, allegedly by three people, who were arrested on Tuesday. The arrested have been identified as Nand Kishore, 24, Dalip Sharma, 27 and Pradeep Kumar 24.
Kumar, who along with Kishore was in jail till 2010 with regard to a murder case, was already in custody in connection with a vehicle theft case.
‘One of the accused, Nand Kishore, allegedly regularly had sex with Gurung, in lieu of money,’ said Chhaya Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (South).
The trio had, on the intervening night of 5 and 6 September, allegedly murdered Gurung and looted his house.
Kishore was close to Gurung and he, along with his friends, allegedly conspired to rob him. Gurung was net-savvy and was frequent on telephone. A number of calls were made on his mobile phone from different local phone booths. Police has traced the owner of the mobile from which Gurung got the last call.
‘He told police that three persons in Ber Sarai borrowed his mobile to make an urgent call. A private CCTV camera in a house was a big help, as the mobile owner identified the three men who had asked for his phone. Their photographs were distributed and we got a tip off, which led to the arrests from R K Puram,’ she said.
Kishore and Sharma were arrested and during interrogation they told police about Pradeep, who was already in police custody. Pradeep and Kishore were convicted for three years in a murder case of Santosh Jain in May 2007. They had apparently killed Jain as they suspected he was making advances towards Kishore’s girlfriend. After being released from jail in 2010, they were not able to make ends meet and were always short of money.
‘Hence, they decided to rob Gurung, with whom Kishore had come in contact a few months ago. As the deceased was interested in Kishore, they soon developed sexual relations. He paid him money for that,’ Sharma said.
The accused told police that they reached Gurung’s residence, had Chinese food and alcohol. ‘During night, initially they consumed beer and had sex with Gurung. Then they strangled him to death and took all his valuables,’ Sharma said.