On December 19 last year, a resident of A-4, Welcome colony -- Nirmala Devi -- complained to the police that her husband who had left for a business trip on October 31 had still not returned. She feared that he had been kidnapped.

A case was registered (FIR no 316/98) under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine person) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Nirmala Devi told the police that her husband Ram Murthy Pandey left home in his tempo (no. DL-11-B-5184) and never returned. The police discovered that one Ajay Mehto was with Pandey that day. Mehto allegedly took him first to Mangolpuri, next to Munger district in Uttar Pradesh and finally to Patna.

On reaching Patna, they were joined by Ajay's relatives Shyam, Shehto and Romo. The police claim that this is when they made the plan to kill Pandey and they allegedly stabbed him to death while he was sleeping in his tempo on G.T. Road in the Phulwari area of Patna.

After killing him they allegedly dumped his body on the side of the road and then took off with Rs 30,000 in the tempo. The police say that they were initially misled by witnesses who said that Ajay had also been missing since October 31. But sustained efforts revealed that Ajay's wife was also missing from their Delhi residence.

The police next realised that Ajay's wife was with her father. The two were interrogated and they allegedly told the police about the murder. The North East district police next discovered that a case (FIR no. 442/98) dated November 8 was registered at the Phulwari police station under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (attempt to destroy evidence) IPC.

The four were subsequently arrested and the tempo had been recovered.