Tuesday, 12 SEPTEMBER 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The police on Monday arrested a lieutenant colonel in Dehradun on charges of murdering a woman with whom he allegedly was having an extra-marital affair with for about three years. She was reportedly pressurising the accused to give her the status of his wife despite being aware of his marriage, said the Dehradun senior superintendent of police Daleep Singh Kunwar. The police on Sunday morning found the body of a woman about two kilometres from the main Thano road near Raipur’s Sauda Saroli. The police observed that the woman had serious injuries on her head and forehead. They also found a bottle of toilet cleaner lying near her body. There were no CCTV cameras nearby and the police found nothing at the spot that could help in the identification of the deceased. A case was registered under section 302/201 of the Indian Penal Code against an unknown person on the complaint of the police post in-charge of Maldevta. The SSP said that four teams were formed to investigate the case of this blind murder. He said that the police found out during the investigation that a car entered the area around 11 PM on Saturday. He said that the police checked about 240 vehicles going from Maharana Pratap Chowk towards Thano and from Thano Chowk towards Maharana Pratap Chowk between 11 PM to 4 AM. When the police checked and compared the movement of the said vehicles with the previous night, they found the timing of 18 four-wheeler vehicles suspicious and gathered details about them to verify all associated details of these vehicles. He said that the police found the activity of a vehicle suspicious, which was owned by Ramendu Upadhyay (42), a resident of Panditwadi in Premnagar. The investigation revealed that the owner had reportedly switched off his phone when the woman was killed and it took him an extra 42 minutes on Saturday night to travel from Maharana Pratap Chowk to Thano Chowk. The police detained him on Monday morning from his home for interrogation. The police also found the victim’s photo on the mobile phone of the accused. He finally confessed to killing her, said Kunwar. He said that the accused is currently posted as a lieutenant colonel in Clement Town. According to him, the victim’s name was Shreya Sharma who was a bar dancer in West Bengal’s Siliguri. He met her in 2020 when he was posted there and they both started living there together. “According to the accused, when he was transferred to Dehradun, he brought Shreya along with him to which his wife raised an objection so he sent her back. He called her again twice and sent her back again but she started pressurising him to give her the status of his wife. She also reportedly met his wife which worsened the situation for him. Due to this, he finally decided to kill her, as claimed by the accused.” The SSP has also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for the team to nab the accused within 24 hours.
