55-year-old woman’s blind murder case cracked, suspect in police net

The Ludhiana police on Sunday arrested a suspect for killing a woman over Rs 18K money dispute. The victim had lent money to the suspect and the latter killed the 55-year-old woman after she humiliated him for failing to return the money.

Sonam Jain was found dead at her residence in Punjabi Bagh Chowk, Salem Tabri, on June 21. The woman’s body was found in the bathroom of her house where she was strangled by the suspect.

DCP Rupinder Singh, ADCP Sameer Verma, ACP Davinder Chaudhary and Salem Tabri SHO inspector Amritpal Singh addressed a press conference in this regard on Sunday.

The ADCP said Sonam used to lend money to people on interest. The suspect, Sanjeev Kumar, alias Kaku (41), of Salem Tabri had borrowed Rs 18,000 from her and had paid some installments but when he was unable to pay the latest instalment, Sonam started taunting and mentally harassing him. Angered by the same, the man entered the house and strangled the victim to death.

Verma said Sanjeev works as an AC mechanic. He wanted to start his own business, for which he had taken money from the woman on interest.

On June 21, when Sonam’s husband Surinder returned home for lunch, he found the door of the house open. There was no response when he called his wife. When he went inside the bathroom, her body was lying on the floor. Surinder raised the alarm, after which people from the vicinity gathered at the place. The police reached the scene and started investigation. They traced the killer with the help of Safe City cameras and intelligence inputs, he said.

Sonam’s two children were staying abroad. At the time of the incident, her husband Surinder had gone to work.

The ADCP said the suspect had already decided to kill the woman. On that day, he went to her house. He was wearing a cap, gloves, mask and an open shirt over the T-shirt as he did not want to leave any proof of his presence in the house. When the suspect reached her home, he started heated arguments with the woman. After finding her alone in the house, he strangled her to death.

“The police checked several CCTV cameras, mobile call details of the deceased and the suspect were also checked to get any clue. It was a blind case but the police investigation succeeded in solving the same within two weeks,” he said.

Sources said when the suspect was having heated argument with the woman, she had informed his mother. He had also switched off his mobile when he came to commit the crime. These factors also helped the police in getting clues in the case.

Ludhiana