On September 25, 2023, Delhi Police knocked on the door of Aman Singh’s home in the Roshan Garden neighbourhood of Delhi’s Najafgarh area — a cluster of suburban houses populated mostly by families with roots in Haryana and Punjab.
Aman, 63, had no police record. His house, a two-floor structure, was known for its frequent — and packed — kirtan gatherings, arranged by his ‘sister-in-law’ Santosh Verma.
Police, however, were there for a reason: Aman bore a striking resemblance to someone with a bloodier past: Santosh’s late husband Balesh Kumar. Balesh, a former Navy steward, had been booked for allegedly murdering his brother-in-law in April 2004. Fourteen days later, Balesh’s charred body was found in a truck in Jodhpur.
But was he really dead? When the police team turned up at the house, after a reliable tip-off, they knew they had their man — Aman was none other than Balesh.
They swiftly took him into custody.
A history-sheeter, police said Balesh was wanted in a case of burglary in Delhi and was accused in two separate cases of murder — one in the national capital and the other in Rajasthan.
Rap sheet
As per his police record, Balesh was born in July 1964 in Bagh Kare Khan, a working-class neighbourhood in Delhi’s Kishan Ganj. He studied till Class VIII in a government school in the same locality. He had nine siblings.
In 1981, Balesh joined the Indian Navy as a steward.
“In 1983, he married Santosh from Panipat in Haryana. Balesh’s job took him to multiple states like Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. In 1996, he opted for voluntary retirement. He settled down with his wife and three children in Uttam Nagar and started working as a truck driver,” a police officer said.
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In 2000, he stole crockery from a Navy canteen in Lutyens’ Delhi. Balesh, his father Chandrabhan, and brother-in-law Khushi Ram (35) were arrested in this case, police said.
In 2004, police said he committed murder. On April 18 of that year, Balesh, his brother Sunder Lal, and Khushi Ram were drinking near Transport Nagar in Bawana, close to a stretch of isolated plots.
“Khushi Ram had long suspected that Balesh was having an affair with his wife. He confronted him that night. Balesh didn’t want others in the family to know about it so he strangled Khushi Ram to death with the help of his brother,” a senior police officer had said at the time.
Both brothers took Khushi Ram’s body and dumped it in a field. Within a few days, police were on to them and soon arrested Sunder Lal.
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Santosh, in her statement to police, had alleged that Balesh came straight to her after the murder and told a very different story. “He said my brother was having an affair with his sister, and that’s why they fought. He then told me that if he gets caught, he would be hanged,” Santosh had told the police, as per officers.
Police said Balesh then told her there was only one way to escape death — to play dead.
A carefully laid plan
Balesh had got his own truck with the help of his other brother, Mahendra, police said. “He transported cardboard boxes from Delhi to Rajasthan, and usually went alone. On May 1, he asked two labourers, Mohit and Manoj, to accompany him to Jodhpur and help him deliver the boxes,” a police officer said.
Mohit and Manoj, from Bihar, had wandered into Transport Nagar late at night when most trucks would depart from Delhi and drivers would be looking for helping hands-for-hire. Police said Balesh hired the duo that day — and got them drunk as they drove to Dandiyawas area of Jodhpur.
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Police said neither noticed when Balesh parked the truck in the dead of the night, got out, and came back with a can of petrol.
“I sprinkled it inside the truck’s cabin, and set it on fire. Both of them were burnt to death,” Balesh allegedly said in his statement, cited by the cops in their chargesheet filed in the case.
Police said Balesh had it all planned, and Santosh was in on it. She would later tell the police that her instructions were clear: come to Jodhpur, claim one of the bodies as that of her husband, and get a death certificate made.
“As per the plan, Mahender got a call from the Jodhpur police, as the truck was in his name, and the family rushed to Jodhpur. Santosh and Chandrabhan claimed the charred remains were that of Balesh. The Investigating Officer did not order a DNA test or an autopsy,” a police source had said earlier.
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Santosh was handed a death certificate with help from some middlemen.
“I submitted the proof of his death at the Navy headquarters and insurance companies. I started getting ‘widow’ pension every month, and also got his truck insurance and life insurance claims,” Santosh had claimed in her statement, police said.
This amounted to a monthly widow pension of Rs 18,000; a Rs 3 lakh insurance payout on the truck; and Rs 6 lakh life insurance payout.
His family now financially set, police said Balesh fled to Punjab, to the house of a distant relative and started doing odd jobs to stay off the radar.
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“Santosh would shuttle between Punjab and Delhi with her children to be in touch with her husband. In 2008, Balesh got a job as a driver in Panipat, and moved to a rented accommodation. He told his wife that he won’t be able to live with her in Uttam Nagar as everyone knew him in the area, and that they needed a new house in Najafgarh,” a police officer said.
A new identity
In 2010, the Centre introduced Aadhaar, a new ID proof with a unique 12-digit number. Police said Balesh finally had an in, and rushed to get himself a new identity. His new name: Aman Singh, son of Jagjeet Singh.
“Only the couple’s children were told of their father’s new name,” a police officer said.
By 2011, Santosh sold her flat in Uttam Nagar and got a plot in Roshan Garden.
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In 2023, The Indian Express reported that Balesh shifted to Roshan Garden as Aman with his family while Santosh continued to play the part of a widow. She told neighbours that ‘Aman’ was her brother-in-law, and that her husband was in the Navy.
Police had said Santosh also used her “widow status” to file pleas in courts seeking the release of her elder son, Naveen, from jail on humanitarian grounds. Naveen was named an accused in a murder case, one case under the Arms Act and a dacoity case.
Jig is up
In 2019, police got their first tip-off that a man involved in a ‘burglary’ case who had been declared dead was alive and well. But the details were sparse and the case went cold again.
Then in September 2023, police got a more detailed tip-off: a man accused in a burglary case in 2000, who served in the Navy and was declared dead, was living as Aman Singh. A police officer said these four points narrowed down their search to just one man in their records: Balesh.
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“We checked with the insurance company about the compensation received by his wife. Then, we got Balesh’s death certificate from the Jodhpur civic body. We analysed court documents and discovered that his family had used that death certificate to get all court cases against him closed. Raids were conducted and Balesh was arrested from Dwarka,” a senior police officer had said.
Santosh and his children escaped immediately after the arrest in their car, only to be summoned by the police later.
Over two years and three bail applications later, the Patiala House court set the bail of Balesh at Rs 1 lakh, considering his age, and mandating weekly visits to the Crime Branch office.
His wife has been out on bail. The case is at a pre-trial stage.
