Google location data helped Delhi police uncover murder case of a senior citizen, two arrested

Delhi Police was able to arrest two people - Rajesh (35) and Sagar (30) - for allegedly killing a 60-year-old man, with the help of Google's location data, officials said. Residents of Delhi's Sundar Nagri area, Rajesh and Sagar were arrested for allegedly murdering Ram Karan Verma, a senior citizen according to officials.

"On March 4, Sunil Verma, son of Ram Karan Verma, filed a case at Nand Nagari police station where he stated that his father was missing since March 2. Sunil alleged that Rajesh and Sagar were behind it," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur said.

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A case of abduction was registered on March 20 and an investigation launched, Thakur said.

Here's what happened

Officials first looked into call detail records (CDRs). However, police made very little progress there onwards. Hence, Police then decided to look onto Google location data of one of the accused. The data showed that the accused had visited the Lucknow Expressway on March 2.

Thakur said, when asked about the visit, the accused could not give a satisfactory answer and ended up confessing to killing Verma and dumping his body near the expressway at Kotwali Nagar in Barabanki.

It was later revealed by the accused that Verma had borrowed around Rs 18 lakh from them and he was making excuses on being asked to return the money.

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On being pressured, the victim had even transferred a Ghaziabad property worth Rs 10 lakh to the accused but was not returning the remaining amount. Hence, the accused hatched Verma's murder plan. As part of the plan, the accused invited Verma to visit Kumbh with them on March 2, the DCP said.

The duo strangled the victim on the way, he added.

The body of the deceased has been recovered and a case under sections 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence) were registered.

(With PTI inputs)