In a high voltage drama, a former Indian Information Service (IIS) officer, who is accused of killing his wife, a Supreme Court lawyer, was found hiding inside the store room of their bungalow. The accused was caught after hiding inside a store room for more than 10 hours as police teams searched his property with a dog squad.
The deceased, identified as 61-year-old Renu Sinha was found in a bathroom of her house in the posh Sector 30 of Noida on Sunday. As per the report, the motive behind the murder was a disagreement between the couple over selling off their bungalow.
The store room measuring less than 5 ft by 5 ft was located on the second floor of the two-storey house, which was also the centre of the disagreement between the couple.
An argument ensued between 62-year-old Nitin Nath Sinha and his wife, Renu over him selling the house, valued at Rs 4.5 crore, located in posh Sector 30 on Sunday morning.
The argument escalated and Sinha allegedly strangled his wife to death around 9.30 am.
“Around 12 pm, Sinha even had a visitor at home. It was a property broker with whom Sinha was negotiating the deal for selling off his paternal house and had taken an advance of Rs 55 lakh,” an officer privy to the investigation was quoted by PTI as saying.
“The retired man had left his wife’s body in the bathroom attached to a room on the ground floor and went to attend the broker. Exuding alacrity, he then took the broker to the upper floor of the house, telling him that both the floors of the house were designed in a similar fashion,” the officer added.
The broker left the house around 1:00 pm and Sinha went back to the bathroom to make sure that his wife had died.
After some time, he started receiving phone calls from his brother-in-law Ajay, since his phone calls to his sister Renu had been going unanswered since Saturday. Sinha told Ajay that he was in Delhi’s Lodhi Garden area and would return by evening.
“Worried over the whereabouts of his sister, Ajay, who lives in Sector 45 of the city, had approached the local police around 3 pm. He then went to the house himself and later the police also reached there. The locks at the entry gate of the property and the main door were broken for entry,” the officer said.
After a police team entered the house and found Renu’s body in the bathroom but her husband was nowhere to be seen.
His car, however, was found inside the house his phone went switched off around 3.30 pm. Forensic experts and a dog squad reached the spot and conducted a thorough search of the ground floor of the house.
However, only a rudimentary search was carried out on the upper floor, which had not been in use since 2021 when Sinha’s mother passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic, a police officer said.
“Another challenge for the police was based on Ajay’s suspicion that Sinha could flee India. Hence police trained its focus on preventing that from happening. Areas nearby the house were searched, police teams sent to metro stations, and even some hotels nearby were searched to trace Sinha,” the officer added.
Police teams were directed to monitor roads leading to the IGI Airport in Delhi and the Nepal border. A Look Out Circular was also issued against Sinha.
After he was nowhere to be found, an analysis of CCTV footage from the neighbourhood and his phone record was done which suggested that he never left the house.
The police team began another round of intensive search inside the house especially on the upper floor.
“A little before midnight, the police team started breaking down doors of the rooms. It’s a big house spread over 3,000 sq ft and had around 10 rooms. Ultimately, Sinha was found hiding inside a small store room which is attached to a room,” he said.
Sinha, who hid in the store room at 3:30 pm and was found at 1:00 am, had carried a water bottle and some cigarettes along with him.
Sinha told police that that he was scared after his wife’s death and did not know what to do and therefore he went and hid in the store room.
(With PTI inputs)
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