- The woman said she plotted her boyfriend's murder because he had recorded her private videos
- Investigators have found private visuals of at least 15 women on the hard disk
- The man's charred body was recovered on October 6 from a flat in Delhi's Timarpur area after a massive blaze
The hard disk at the centre of a 32-year-old civil services aspirant's grisly murder earlier this month contains private visuals of at least 15 women, police have said, suggesting that he had a fetish for storing such content -- a perversion that got him killed.
Ram Kesh Meena's charred body was recovered on October 6 from a flat in north Delhi's Timarpur area after a massive blaze. As the police started investigating the case, a chilling conspiracy came to light.
Three weeks after Ram Kesh's death, his live-in partner, Amrita Chauhan, her ex-boyfriend Sumit Kashyap, and their common friend Sandeep Kumar were arrested for allegedly killing him and staging the fire to make it look like an accident.
Amrita told police that she plotted Ram Kesh's murder because he had recorded her private videos and stored them on a hard disk. She repeatedly asked him to delete the videos, but he refused. Getting the hard disk was among the key motives behind the crime. And now, police have found that it contained private videos of several other women, apparently stored without their consent.
Ravindra Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, told NDTV that Amrita and Sumit plotted Ram Kesh's murder because they feared he might circulate her private videos on the Internet.
The Murder And The Cover-Up Attempt
The investigation has revealed that late on October 5, Sumit and Sandeep thrashed Ram Kesh and choked him to death. They then poured oil, ghee and wine on the body to fuel the fire.
Sumit, police said, pulled out the gas cylinder from the kitchen and placed it near Ram Kesh's head. The knob was turned, and gas started filling the room. The accused had already taken Ram Kesh's two laptops, the hard disk, and other belongings.
All checks done, Sumit ignited the fire using a lighter and locked the main door. After they had left the building, the cylinder exploded.
What Gave The Killers Away
Special Commissioner Yadav said that police initially suspected a blast due to a gas leak. "The front panel of the air conditioner was damaged, so we also considered that the air conditioner had exploded. But when we discussed the case, the story did not add up. Things did not fall into place. So we decided to conduct an in-depth probe," he said.
For all their meticulous planning, the killers had not factored in the CCTV. While scanning CCTV footage from the building, cops noticed something shocking. Two people, their faces covered, entered the building the night before the fire. Some time later, one of them exited the building. And then, a man and a woman left the building. This woman was identified as Amrita, Ram Kesh's live-in partner.
How The Killers Were Arrested
Amrita's phone was switched off after the incident. Following several raids, police caught her on October 18. During interrogation, she identified the co-accused -- her ex-boyfriend Sumit and friend Sandeep. Sumit was arrested on October 21, and Sandeep on October 23.
Amrita told the police that Ram Kesh had stored her private videos on a hard disk and refused to delete them. When she shared this with Sumit, he was enraged, and the two plotted Ram Kesh's murder.
Amrita, 21, is a forensics student with a keen interest in crime thrillers. Asked if she used her forensics knowledge in her attempt to cover up the crime, the senior police officer replied, "Absolutely, she also discussed with Sumit ways on how to ensure that no clues are found." Sumit worked in cooking gas cylinder distribution and knew how long an LPG cylinder may take to explode. "They were confident that police would not reach them."
Asked if such tactics could have actually covered up the case, the officer replied that a post-mortem usually identifies the cause of death. "But they can mislead the investigator, and if the doctor (conducting the postmortem) is also told it is an accident, he may not conduct an in-depth probe and the killer may escape," he said.
A Hard Disk Full Of Nudes
Investigators have found private visuals of at least 15 women on the hard disk recovered from Amrita. Asked about this, Yadav replied, "I would not like to comment on this because we have not received any other complaint in this connection. And we have to keep in mind the possible stigma (caused by any revelation)."
However, the officer confirmed that videos of at least 15 more women have been found on the hard disk and Ram Kesh's other devices.
Capturing private visuals of a woman without her knowledge is a punishable offence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and also runs afoul of the Information Technology Act and privacy laws.
Section 77 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which penalises voyeurism, also clarifies that the law applies even if the victim consents to the capture but not to the dissemination of such images to third persons.
Watching, capturing, or disseminating such images is punishable on the first conviction with a one-year jail term. A subsequent conviction may attract a jail term between three years and seven years.
