Delhi cop held for killing woman, her friend over ‘rejected proposal’

GHAZIABAD: A traffic inspector of Delhi Police and an accomplice were arrested on Saturday for allegedly shooting dead a 26-year-old man and his 32-year-old girlfriend days before they were to get engaged.
Dinesh Kumar, currently posted in Seemapuri area of northeast Delhi, is believed to have told police that he was in a relationship with the woman, Preeti, for the past 12 years.When he proposed marriage to her, she declined, and instead told him of her wish to get engaged to Annu Chauhan, who owned a glass shop in Ghaziabad.
On March 25, Dinesh shot Annu and Preeti with his service revolver as they were coming out of a temple. The duo died on the spot.
Police said Dinesh was all the more angry with Preeti because she had changed her phone number and severed all contact with him.
“The accused has told us during questioning that he killed the woman and her friend because she had been ignoring him for some time and had even changed her phone number so that the traffic sub-inspector could not contact her. What angered him all the more was that the woman was going to get engaged to another man,” said Upender Kumar, the Ghaziabad SSP.
According to police, Dinesh was a distant relative of Preeti and gradually developed a liking for her. “On March 25, Dinesh finished his night duty around 8am, reached the woman’s house in Ghaziabad along with Pintu and waited in a car. When Preeti went to the temple along with Annu, they followed them. Dinesh confronted the couple when they came out of the temple. He repeatedly asked Preeti to sever ties with Annu, but the woman kept refusing. Angry, Dinesh shot both of them with his revolver and fled the spot,” Kumar said. The duo were shot at least three times each from point blank range and died on the spot. Dinesh’s revolver was found at the murder spot along with a few bullet shells. The Swift Dzire, in which Dinesh and Pintu had come, was also left at the spot.
Annu, who lived in Sarvodaya Nagar, and Preeti, who was from Pratap Vihar, had been in a relationship for the past three years and were going to get engaged in a few days when they were shot dead.
Annu, originally from Uttarakhand, had been running a glass shop in Ghaziabad for the past few years, while Preeti worked at a private school in Indirapuram.
According to sources, Dinesh had joined Delhi Police as a constable in 1994 and was promoted as head constable in 2008. He again got a promotion in 2016 and became a sub-inspector. Currently, he is posted in Seemapuri area of North-East Delhi as a traffic sub-inspector.
The Ghaziabad police chief appreciated the team that investigated the case and gave it a Rs 25,000 reward.