Weak spelling skills of murderer help police arrest him
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The case was cracked as police employed an ingenious trick based on a small but important observation.
There's no saying what may help investigation officials as they try and solve a crime. Smallest of details can lead to a major revelation. The official just needs to be clever enough to spot the detail. UP Police cracked a murder case in Hardoi due to weak spelling skill of the accused.
The accused Ram Pratap Singh had kidnapped and 8-year-old boy from his grandmother's house on October 26 and murdered him. The same day however, he sent a message to the boy's father through a stolen phone and demanded 200,000 rupees for the release of the boy.
In the message sent to the boy's father, Singh wrote '"Do lakh rupay Seeta-Pur lekar pahuchiye. Pulish ko nahi batana nahi to hatya kar denge (Reach Sitapur with Rs 2 lakh. Don`t inform the police or your son will be murdered)."
"When the boy`s family lodged a missing complaint, we formed teams to trace him. We called back on the mobile phone number but it was switched off. The cyber-surveillance cell was roped in and we detained a person in whose name the SIM was issued, but he said his phone had been stolen," said Anurag Vats, Superintendent of Police in Hardoi.
On the basis of CCTV footage and tip-offs, police picked up 10 suspects including Ram Pratap Singh.
Now the real task was to nab the real killer from the crowd.
Police asked all suspects to write: "Main police main bharti hona chahta hoon. Main Hardoi se Sitapur daud kar ja sakta hoon (I want a police job. I can run from Hardoi to Sitapur)."
Ram Pratap Singh fell into the trap as he wrote police as 'pulish' and Sitapur as 'Seeta-pur', just as he had done in the ransom message to the boy's father.
He was arrested on Saturday and later confessed to the crime.
(With IANS inputs)