Sunday, April 27, 2014

British man found dead in southeast Delhi

 

NEW DELHI: A highly decomposed body of a 40-year old British tourist was found wrapped in a carpet which was stuffed into a plastic bag in Bhogal, near Nizamuddin locality of southeast Delhi on Sunday morning.

The victim, Rodick Andrew Raymond, was identified through a passport recovered from his pocket later in the day. Prima facie investigations suggest Raymond died of multiple injuries inflicted by a blunt object on his head and face. There were abrasions on his hands and legs as well, police said.

Apart from six teams of local police, several teams from the crime branch and the special cell have been constituted to crack the case, sources said.

The body was found around 8am outside Balaji mobile repair shop at Bhogal market which is next to the Church road. Locals noticed a large blue plastic bag and informed the police.

"We noticed the bag around 8.10am and found foul smell coming from it. We got suspicious and called the police," said N K Gupta, a local shopkeeper who was among the first few to have seen the bag and the body. Another resident, Chander Mohan, said that no one saw the body being dumped at the spot.

A team from the Jangpura police post reached the site and opened the bag to find the body of the man wrapped in a carpet. His hands were tied with his legs. Residents of a house (number 51/1) near the site were questioned but police could get no clues in the case.

According to the police, circumstantial evidence suggests Raymond was murdered elsewhere and dumped at the Bhogal market in the early hours of Sunday. "He appears to have been killed at least two days ago," said an investigator, citing the condition of the body which had turned black giving cops an initial impression that the victim was of African origin.

Investigators said Raymond had come to India two months ago on a tourist visa and had been on a countrywide tour. He had was found to have

visited Chennai, Mumbai and Goa before coming to Delhi. Police said they are yet to determine where he was staying in the city. Senior officials said they have got in touch with the British high commission and Foreign Regional Registration Office to ascertain details about of the victim.

The passport was soiled, with cops barely managing to read his name and date of birth. His UK address was either omitted or was not written, police said.

The cops are now trying to obtain the Indian mobile number which Raymond had been using to get leads about the identity of people he had been in touch in the country.

The body has been preserved at AIIMS for an autopsy which will be carried out with the high commission's permission. "We have registered a case under section 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC and are probing all angles," said DCP (southeast) P Karunakaran.

While the robbery angle is not being ruled out, sources said Raymond was possibly killed inside a house as the body was wrapped in a carpet. The crime and forensic teams have photographed and collected evidence from the victim's belongings.

Cops are trying to find out where the plastic bag and the carpet came from, a source said.

The area where the body was found is inhabited mostly by people of African origin or Afghans. Cops suspect the killers could be familiar with the area. Residents said the killers dumped the body on the roadside only after the duty of the area guards had ended.
MD NAUSHAD ALAM
PGDM 2 SEM
 

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