Man gets life term for killing couple, burning their bodies over Rs 50L

Mathura: A 35-year-old man who strangled a couple, burned their bodies and left their charred remains inside a rented apartment has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the district court in UP’s Mathura. The horrific double murder, which shocked the region in 2022, was triggered by a ₹50 lakh job racket that went wrong.District and sessions judge Vikas Kumar delivered the verdict on Wednesday, finding Pawan Kuntal guilty of murder and destroying evidence. The court also slapped a fine of ₹2.5 lakh on the convict, failure to pay will invite an additional six months’ prison.The case dates back to March 25, 2022, when police discovered two charred bodies inside a house in Karmyogi Colony under Highway police station. District govt counsel (DGC) Shiv Ram Singh Tarkar said the victims were eventually identified as Bhim Singh (39) and his wife, Bharti Devi (35), residents of Mathura’s Sonkh area after Bhim’s brother Sukhdev visited the mortuary to identify the remains.The couple had been reported missing by another family member two days earlier.During investigation, it was found that the couple was last seen traveling in a car with Kuntal, a resident of neighbouring Bharatpur district in Rajasthan. Investigators established that the motive behind the crime was a dispute over money. Kuntal had reportedly swindled ₹50 lakh from the couple under the false pretense of securing lucrative employment for their nephews and other local youths. The money was collected by the couple from several job aspirants. When the promised jobs never materialised, Bhim and Bharti began aggressively demanding their money back.On March 22, 2022, Kuntal lured the couple to his rented apartment to resolve the dispute. He spiked their glasses of water to incapacitate them, strangled them both to death and then set their bodies on fire in a desperate bid to erase evidence. He was arrested three days later.Though Kuntal rejected the initial chargesheet and forced the case to trial, the prosecution built an airtight case. Judge Vikas Kumar noted that the combination of forensic, scientific and documentary evidence left no doubt about Kuntal’s guilt.The convict, who has been locked up since his 2022 arrest, will remain in prison to serve out his sentence.