Hiding behind a hit-and-run case was a brutal murder conspiracy, as police unearthed the reason behind the death of a 82-year-old man in Nagpur. The contract killing plan was allegedly hatched by his daughter-in-law for Rs 300 crore-worth family property.
The accused, Archana Manish Puttewar, was arrested last, more than two weeks after her father-in-law, Purushottam, was killed after a car ran him over, NDTV reported.
Archana was employed as the assistant director in the town planning department. She hired people to hit her father-in-law for a sum of Rs 1 crore, a police officer told news agency PTI.
"She gave funds to the accused to purchase a used car to knock down her father-in-law. This was done to make the murder look like an accident. It is apparently to gain control of his property of Rs 300 crore," the officer was quoted as saying.
The 53-year-old Archana alleged hatched the murder conspiracy with her husband's driver Badge and two others -- Neeraj Nimje and Sachin Dharmik. The accused have been charged with murder and other relevant sections under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Motor Vehicles Act.
Cops also seized mobile phones, gold jewellery and two cars, the report said. This came after Dharmik's admission to taking Rs 3 lakh and some gold from Archana to execute the plan, News18 reported.
Notably, on the day of his murder, Purushottam had gone to visit his wife Shakuntala at the hospital. She is recovering from a surgery. It was when he was on his way back, that the hired accused ran him over.
During initial investigation, Archana's custody was not extended beyond three days, which led to the cops losing any chance at confronting the two accused.
Reportedly, it was only after they reviewed a CCTV footage of the accident, that the car's registration number was revealed.
Meanwhile, the probe into the murder also found several irregularities in Archana's work at the town planning department. It said that no action was taken against her even after several complaints, adding that this was because of her political connections.
