SHIMLA: In a shocking incident, a man in Himachal Pradesh allegedly killed a labourer and burnt his body in his car, to fake his own death for making insurance claim. Aakash, a resident of Chandigarh, ran out of luck and was arrested on Tuesday from Palwal Railway Station in a joint operation of the Sirmour Police and the Government Railway Police.

"Prima facie, Aakash and his family wanted to grab the huge life insurance money, the value of which will be estimated after further investigation and interrogation of the accused," PTI quoted Sirmaur Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani as saying.

The SP said Aakash's nephew Ravi Kumar (29) was also involved in planning and executing the alleged crime. Kumar was arrested on Monday from Himachal Pradesh's Nahan.

A car had collided with a parapet at Judda Ka Johar and it got completely burnt before police could arrive on November 20, following which a case of accidental death was registered at Nahan police station. It was also stated that a person named Aakash had died in the alleged accident and got burnt with the vehicle, police said. A team of Forensic Science Laboratory visited the spot the next day.

The SP said police suspected some foul play when Aakash's family started to pressure the police to release 'death certificate' from the very next day of the "accident", he said.

"...and grew suspicious when a team of the Punjab Police came to Nahan a few days ago in search of a missing labourer from Rajasthan who was working with Aakash and was last in touch with him, the SP said.

Meanwhile, Ravi visited Nahan on December 3. The SP said as suspicion grew, police nabbed Ravi from Nahan and produced him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, which sent him to five-days' police remand.

During interrogation, police found out that Ravi was with Aakash when he burnt his car and then they left for Haryana. Aakash was further planning to flee to Nepal, the SP said.

As per their plan, Aakash had deliberately collided his car with the parapet on the intervening night of November 19-20 and set it afire before police reached the spot, Malpani said.

A police team chased Aakash till Varanasi but, he managed to escape.

Finally, he was detained on December 4 at Palwal Railway Station while he was travelling in a train from Bihar to Delhi, the SP said.

The accused will be produced in a court to seek his police remand for interrogating him and finding out the modus operandi used to kill the unidentified labourer, police said.

A fresh case has been registered under section 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and both Aakash and Ravi have been arrested, the SP said

(With inputs from PTI)