Headless body case: Wanted ‘serial killer’, wife held

hree days after the police found a headless body stuffed in a gunny bag, the police on Sunday arrested a ‘serial killer’, wanted by the Bihar and Mohali Police in four murders, and his wife in connection with the case

Three days after the police found a headless body stuffed in a gunny bag, the police on Sunday arrested a ‘serial killer’, wanted by the Bihar and Mohali Police in four murders, and his wife in connection with the case.

Headless body case: Wanted ‘serial killer’, wife held . (HT FILE)

According to police, the accused had executed the murder and cut off the head of the victim to fake his own murder, so the police would stop chasing him assuming him as dead.

The police have also arrested his wife for helping him in disposing of the dead body. The accused has been identified as Pankaj Sharma, 32, of Madhepura of Bihar and his wife Neha Kumari, 28.

The police suspected that another man was involved in the murder. The police are questioning the accused to trace their aide. The accused had introduced himself as Sanjay in one locality and Sajan in another.

The victim has been identified as Ram Prasad, 40, of Jagdishpura in Ludhiana. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, Prasad was unmarried and was living alone in Ludhiana. The accused made him consume the liquor till he lost his consciousness on June 3. They tied his arms with a piece of rope and glued his lips with a strong adhesive so that he would not raise an alarm. Later, they cut off his body in two parts with a saw. The accused also cut off his fingertips.

Commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that the accused stuffed the body in a layer of gunny bag and kept it in the house for two days. After the body started decomposing, the accused dumped the body on a street in Adarsh Nagar on the intervening night of July 5 and 6. The accused had kept his own Aadhar Card, a bracelet, and a debit card in the pockets of the victim. On July 6 morning, the police recovered the body.

“We found Aadhar card, Debit card and a bracelet from the pockets of the victim, but the identification proofs kept distracting the police. When police started enquiring about the people by showing the picture on an Aadhar Card found from the pocket of the victim, they identified him as Sanjay. We formed several teams to trace the accused. On Sunday the police arrested him and recovered the head and fingers of the victim from a plot near Vardhman Mills at Chandigarh road,” said the commissioner of police.

Further the Commissioner of Police added that the accused told police that he found his lookalike Ram Prasad from Labour Mandi and befriended him. As Parsad was unmarried, he was assured that no one would try to trace him if he murdered him.

Director general of police Gaurav Yadav has announced ₹4 Lakh cash rewards and DGP discs to the investigating team that including deputy commissioner of police (DCP, Rural) Jaskiranjit Singh Teja, ADCP- 4 Tushar Gupta, ACP Industrial East Gurdev Singh, in-charge CIA-2 Inspector Beant Juneja and in-charge CIA-3 Inspector Avtar Singh.

Abducted children rescued

Commissioner of Police said that in 2018, Pankaj had murdered his cousin Chintu in Mohali after he had developed an illicit relation with Chintu’s wife. However, later Chintu’s wife had left Pankaj. Pankaj abducted her two children and kept them with him.

Neha was Pankaj’s first wife and the couple had three kids. Later he married Vishakha from Delhi with whom he also had three children. However, Vishakha along with children had left Pankaj. Currently, he is living with Neha, their three children and two abducted ones.

The ‘serial killer’

In 2013, an attempt to murder case was registered against Pankaj in Bihar after he had assaulted a woman.

In August 2016, he had allegedly murdered a man named Santosh in Dumrey village of Bihar.

In July 2018, Pankaj allegedly bludgeoned his cousin Chintu with stones on Balongi of Mohali.

In July 2019, he had allegedly murdered Rohit Kumar at a plot in Sahi Majra of Mohali after entering into a spat while consuming liquor.

In August 2021, Pankaj and his paternal cousin Nitish Kumar allegedly murdered a woman Sanjana, who was Nitish’s girlfriend. They had stuffed the body in a gunny bag and dumped it in fields in Gosla village.