HindustanTimes Sun,16 Mar 2014

Facebook profile gave vital clues

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times  New Delhi, September 12, 2012
First Published: 23:50 IST(12/9/2012) | Last Updated: 02:07 IST(13/9/2012)

It was the Facebook profile of Bimal Gurung, the hairstylist who was killed by his gay partner, that gave the police clues about his interest in men. His profile on the social networking website was in a different name, but it had enough information that helped the police nab the accused.


The police scanned the friends on his profile and went to the clubs Gurung frequented, to get to know about the sort of company he kept. From them they found out that Gurung had close relations with the culprit Nand Kishore, who already has one murder case registered against him.

Preliminary investigation suggested that the intention behind the murder was robbery as all of Gurung's belongings were found scattered and some valuables were missing. "The entry to the house was also friendly," Chhaya Sharma, DCP (south), said.

Gurung's call records were scanned and a man was detained from whose number the last call was made to him. He described to the police the three men who had borrowed his cell phone for making an urgent call. Police said Kishore had done his best to mislead the police and would always call Gurung from a PCO.

But the man's description and footage from a CCTV camera installed in a house in Ber Sarai, where Gurung lived, helped the police identify the three culprits.

As the victim used to get a lot of calls from PCOs, the photographs of the accused were sent to all those PCO owners.

The accused, Kishore and one Dalip Sharma, were located in RK Puram and held. The third accused, Pradeep Kumar, was already in police custody in connection with a vehicle theft case.

Sharma and Kishore had earlier been sentenced to three years in jail for being involved in a murder case. "After being released from jail in 2010, they were unable to find any permanent employment to fulfill their need for drugs and meet their daily expenses. Kishore met Gurung at a party and the two began a relationship," a senior police officer said.

On September 3, the trio went to Gurung's house, where they consumed beer with him. "Later, Kishore had sex with Gurung. The trio then strangled him to death," the officer added.

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