Blackmail plot goes awry, MBBS student & wife kill ex-principal in Dehradun

DEHRADUN: A fourth year MBBS student and his wife were arrested from Amritsar for allegedly killing a retired school principal (62) in Dehradun after their plot to blackmail him and extort money to fund educational expenses was exposed, police said on Friday.
According to police, the two accused, Himanshu Chowdhary, a resident of Roorkee, and Geeta Chowdhary, a resident of Saharanpur in UP, were on the run after allegedly killing Shyam Lal, a resident of Dehradun's Patelnagar area, on Feb 2.
The murder came to light after Lal's daughter lodged a complaint on Feb 7 about his disappearance. Police had earlier arrested two men, including Geeta's brother, for dumping the dead teacher's body parts in a canal in Saharanpur.
Dehradun SSP Ajai Singh said Himanshu was pursuing MBBS from a private institute in Dehradun and was unable to complete the course within the stipulated time due to which he was burdened with hefty fees.
It was a complicated story that eventually ended in the retired teacher's death. The police officer explained: "It all started a few years ago when Geeta was living separately in Dehradun, away from her first husband. Their three-year-old daughter was with her. Geeta was in a relationship with Lal when she met Himanshu. The two got married at a temple in May last year."
As Himanshu needed money to complete his MBBS course, Geeta told him about her past affair with Lal, following which the couple hatched a plan to extort money from the teacher. The money, they decided, would fund Himanshu's studies. Life would be easy after he became a doctor. As per the plan, Geeta invited Lal to a rented accommodation and Himanshu was ready with a camera to shoot an intimate video.
Along the way, though, Lal got suspicious and insisted on cutting short the rendezvous. But the couple wouldn't let him. After a brief skirmish, the couple overpowered him and in the heat of the moment strangled the old man.
"Being a medical student, Himanshu knew that after a day or two, the blood would clot and there would be no bleeding if the body was chopped or cut. Geeta then called her brother from Saharanpur to help Himanshu dismember the body and dispose of the parts," said SSP Singh, who had earlier announced a reward of Rs 25,000 each on the two key accused.
Dehradun police had sent search teams to Rajasthan's Kota and Jaipur and Delhi, but the couple kept changing their locations before they were eventually nabbed in Amritsar on Thursday evening.
"The two were brought to Dehradun and produced before court on Friday and sent to jail," said Singh.