Man killed by wife, stepson in Pandav Nagar had another family in Bihar

The man, who was allegedly killed by his wife and stepson in Delhi and chopped into 10 pieces, has another wife and children in Bihar and they had no inkling about his disappearance for several months, officials said on Monday.

Poonam (48) and Deepak (25), who have been arrested, had killed 45-year-old Anjan Das on May 30 and after dismembering his body had stored the pieces in a fridge before dumping them in different areas in the eastern part of the national capital, according to police.

Das had a wife and eight children in Bihar, a senior police official said, adding that he used to send them money, but not regularly.

The official said as he did not send money at "regular intervals", his family in Bihar "did not suspect he is missing and no missing complaint was lodged in Delhi or in Bihar".

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Though Das was killed on May 30 after being served alcohol laced with sleeping pills, some of his body parts were found stuffed inside a bag at the Ramlila Ground in east Delhi's Kalyanpuri on June 5, police said.

Over the next few days, his legs, thighs, skull and a forearm were recovered following which a case was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence and giving false information) at the Pandav Nagar Police Station, they said.

When the ghastly details of the Shraddha Walkar murder case started coming to the fore earlier this month, it was also probed if the unidentified body parts were hers. But it was later found that these pieces belonged to a man, police said.

They said in a footage from a CCTV camera, which was being circulated on social media, a woman and a man could be seen carrying two bags and entering a deserted place at 12.43 am on June 1, and the leaving after six minutes. This had made investigators suspicious and later, led them to Poonam and Deepak.

Poonam had met Das in 2011. He had a rented accommodation in the same building she was living in. When her husband Kallu died in 2016, she started living with Das, according to police.

Later, she came to know that Das was already married and had eight children from his first wife in Bihar, they said, adding that he started stealing jewellery and cash from Poonam and sent it to his first wife, due to which they had quarrels and arguments.

Police said around March or April, Poonam came to know that Das had allegedly tried to molest and sexually assault her divorced daughter as well as Deepak's wife.

During investigation, Deepak said after his marriage in 2018, he and his wife had a rented a flat in the neighbourhood, they said, adding that the accused said they felt dominated by Das and he used to also take their money.

It was in April, that the mother-son duo hatched a plan to kill Das and on May 30, they served him alcohol laced with sleeping pills. They stabbed him with a dagger and a knife in his neck, chest and abdomen, police said.

The accused cut his body into pieces the next day and drained the blood, they said.

They thought nobody would come to know of the killing as Das's other family was far away in Bihar and therefore, would not approach authorities. The body was chopped to hide his identity, according to police.

Deepak has told police that on the night of the killing he had asked his sister to sleep with his wife and that his wife had no idea of the plan hatched by him and his mother or the incident, they said.

On Monday, police went to some places where Deepak claimed that he had thrown pieces of Das's body, but nothing was recovered. Till now, six body parts have been recovered and efforts are being made to recover the remaining, an official said.