Shalimar Bagh woman's death case gets murkier, husband arrested

NEW DELHI: Restaurateur Pankaj Mehra , who had claimed an attack on his car by gunmen who shot his wife dead while grappling with him, now has cold-blooded murder on his plate.Mehra's PCR call about his wife being shot dead in the car near Rohini while they were on a long drive, had northwest Delhi cops in a tizzy. Policemen found a “shattered and shocked“ husband who claimed that financiers, from whom he had borrowed money, had bumped off his wife while trying to kill him.Through Wednesday , cops raided a dozen places to nab the suspects. They also went to Sonipat and other places in Delhi and Haryana to nab suspect lenders and to trace a Haryana number Swift car which was supposedly used in the crime.Mehra remained busy through Wednesday with the autopsy and last rites of his wife Priya Mehra , 34.However, when the cops quizzed Mehra, they found his story unconvincing. Baffled and suspicious, cops decided to go old school and cross-examined him at length. Hours later, the story had turned completely. What appeared to be a handiwork of con tract killers, turned out to be cold-blooded murder by Mehra, who wanted to get rid of his wife and his lenders in one stroke, police said.As per the confession, Mehra, deep in debt, planned the murder last month so that he could live peacefully with his live-in partner. He had also borrowed a large sum from Priya and her parents which, he thought, he would not have to pay after her death. He had also borrowed from money-lenders whom he planned to frame for the murder.On Wednesday , he went to his restaurant at Hudson Lane in GTB Nagar, north Delhi, and called his wife there for a drive and dinner. Priya arrived along with their two-year-old son in her Ritz car, after which they headed to Bangla Sahib Gurudwara. They stayed there for over an hour after which they went for drive.He had already bought a pistol from his money-lender friend, Monu, Mehra told cops. He kept driving around between 12am and 3am and headed to outer Delhi thereafter. Around 3.30am, when the son had finally slept off, he confronted his wife with the “miseries“ she had caused him.As an argument ensued, Mehra whipped out his pistol and shot her point blank in the car. She was writhing in pain when he shot her again to ensure that she died. Mehra, cops said, even fired a third time but the pistol jammed. Priya had anyway died by then.Mehra then smashed the window panes in order to stage a confrontation. He then drove around with the body for a good 15 minutes.As per his plan, he took the same route he had planned to tell cops about.Around 4.20am, cops said Mehra dialled 100 and cooked up a story about unidentified men having shot his wife. He also told the control room that he was rushing to the hospital and that cops should come there.Mehra was arrested on Thursday noon and produced before a magistrate.Joint commissioner, (northern range), Rajesh Khurana said that an FIR under sections of murder and criminal conspiracy has been registered against Mehra and his claims are being cross-checked.“The role of some of his friends and family members is also being probed. We have taken him on remand and will question him further to establish a sequence of events,“ said Khurana.