Married, insured and murdered: Lucknow police decode plot behind woman’s accident

LUCKNOW The Lucknow police on Tuesday cracked a ‘murder for monetary gains’ case of May 2023 with the arrest of three people who allegedly staged a fatal accident of a 28-year-old woman of Chinhat locality here to acquire the insurance money and assets purchased in her name, said officials.

Six men, including her father-in-law and husband, allegedly projected the murder as a road accident and also lodged an FIR for it. But their plan went against them when they applied for the life insurance claim and waiver of loan that they had taken in the name of the deceased, Pooja Yadav, with the bank raising the red flag, said police.

“The police worked out the case on Tuesday and arrested three persons, including Kuldeep Singh, 27, the main conspirator, Alok Nigam, 38, a lawyer who gave advice for the plan, and Deepak Verma, 25, the imposter driver. Alok and Deepak were part of the woman’s wedding rituals in 2022 as eyewitnesses,” said DCP (East) Shashank Singh.

All the accused were booked under IPC sections including 302 (murder), 201 (concealing the crime), 120b (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467(forgery), 468 (forgery), and 471 (illegal use of forged documents) and three were sent to jail. The other three accused, including Pooja Yadav’s husband Abhishek, 32, father-in-law Ram Milan, 55, other residents of Lucknow and the alleged killer Abhishek Shukla were at large, he said.

Explaining the plot, the DCP said that Ram Milan got his son Abhishek married to the victim Pooja Yadav and bought a life insurance policy of ₹50 lakh, ₹10 lakh loan, and six vehicles (including 4 four-wheelers and 2 two-wheelers) in her name. One of their acquaintances, Kuldeep, was involved in the “planned murder” .

“They thought if they get her killed, the financial liabilities will end and they can benefit out of it. On May 20, 2023, they executed her car accident and also lodged an FIR by being the eyewitnesses to the accident,” said the DCP.

“However, when they applied for the insurance claim, the company raised objections on certain pointers. That’s when the crime team and Chinhat police started the probe,” said Singh. He pointing out that the accused used Alok’s legal expertise as to how the crime should be executed to evade the probe. “On May 20, 2023, they took Pooja Yadav near the Matiyari crossing, where they got her killed in a road accident by a car from behind that was driven by Abhishek Shukla,” said police, adding that this came to light only when police probed the insurance company.