Serial killer, wife nabbed in headless body case

Tribune News Service

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Ludhiana, July 9

The Ludhiana Commissionerate claimed to have solved the brutal killing of a man whose headless body was recovered in Adarsh Nagar here on July 6. The suspect along with his wife were arrested in the case.

The suspects have been identified as Pankaj Sharma (32), his wife Neha Kumari (28), natives of Bihar and residents of Kidwai Nagar here. The man works as a labourer.

The deceased was identified as Ram Parsad (40), a native of UP.

Past criminal record of the suspect

• In 2013, attempted to kill a woman in Bihar
• In August 2016, killed a man, Santosh, in Bihar
• In July 2018, killed his cousin Chintu Kumar in Bihar, later kidnapped deceased’s two children, Rahul and Rani, and brought them to Ludhiana. Both have been recovered now
• In July 2019, killed Rohit by strangling him in Mohali
• In August 2019, he along with his cousin Nitish Kumar had killed a girl, Sanjana. Duo later packed the body in a sack and disposed of in agricultural fields in Kurali

Commissioner of Police (CP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu addressed a press conference regarding the matter on Sunday.

Sidhu said the suspect was a serial killer, wanted in five murders in Bihar and Punjab and he was never arrested by the police in these cases for around 10 years. Now to close these cases, the man decided to “remove” his identity in the police records. After killing, the man put his ID proof such as Aadhaar card, a bank card in deceased’s pockets and also put a bracelet bearing the name of Pankaj Sharma on the deceased’s wrist to give the impression that Pankaj was murdered. Only a torso was recovered from the sack while head and fingers of the body were missing.

Interestingly, to give wings to his conspiracy, the man took over a month to find his lookalike. He developed a friendship with the victim and also arranged a room for him on rent in a migrants’ vehra in Adarsh Nagar, the CP said, adding that on July 3, Pankaj consumed alcohol along with the deceased.

When the victim went into an inebriated state, the suspect tied his hands and legs with a rope and then bonded his lips with an adhesive glue to ensure no one listen to his cries, the top cop said.

He said the man then brought a saw and severed his head from the torso. Trying to play smart, he also clipped half fingers of the victim to prevent his identification through biometric process.

“The suspect kept the body in his bed box for two days and slept on the same for two nights. On July 6, he along with his wife packed the body (torso) in a sack and threw it on a road in Adarsh Nagar. The couple dumped the head and fingers in a garbage dump near Vardhman Chowk. The police have also got the CCTV footage which shows the couple was heading to dispose of the body,” Sidhu said.

CIA chief Inspector Beant Juneja, who was a part of the team that cracked the blind murder case, said the man was now staying with a different identity due to his past criminal status. A year ago, he was living in Ludhiana as Sanjay and recently he again changed his name as Sajan. He has also been changing mobile numbers frequently. In the past one year, he changed eight mobile numbers, Juneja said.

Meanwhile, the DGP, Punjab, Gaurav Yadav, announced Rs 4 lakh cash reward and DGP Discs for the team that cracked the case.

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