A 62-year-old software consultant from East Delhi has been arrested for allegedly murdering his wife and attempting to conceal evidence by following a strategy he claimed to have learnt from HBO’s acclaimed crime series The Staircase, police said.
The incident took place on July 30 while Kamal Singh and his wife, Komal Singh, were alone at home.
Their son had gone to the library, their daughter was at work and the family’s domestic helper had already left.
According to investigators, Komal was hanging clothes in the balcony when Kamal allegedly struck her from behind with a sword.
Police said the blow did not incapacitate her, and she ran towards the kitchen after raising an alarm. Kamal then allegedly dragged her into the living room and repeatedly attacked her with a pair of scissors.
Investigators said neighbours heard the victim’s screams, but nobody intervened.
The murder came to light on the night of July 30 after the couple’s son returned home and found his mother, Komal Singh (50), lying in a pool of blood in their Gagan Vihar residence in Delhi’s Shahdara.
The woman was found lying in a pool of blood with a blood-stained pair of scissors placed in her hand to make it appear that she had stabbed herself.
However, the victim’s son suspected that his father had murdered his mother.
Police traced the accused through CCTV footage and electronic surveillance before arresting him near Mathura railway station after a three-day search.
During questioning, Kamal allegedly told investigators that he intended to destroy the murder weapon to weaken the case against him, drawing inspiration from The Staircase.
He told investigators that he had planned to destroy the murder weapon, as shown in the web series The Staircase, to weaken the evidence against him. He was planning to flee to Nepal, police said.
During questioning, Singh admitted that he had planned the killing in advance because of a long-running dispute over family properties and had purchased the scissors a few days back before the planned murder.
The motive behind the crime is believed to be that Kamal wanted to purchase a property in Jagatpuri and have it registered in his father’s name.
The probe also revealed that Kamal and Komal’s marriage had been extremely strained for the past year. During a trip to Mumbai, Kamal had also become closer to another woman.
After the killing, investigators said
Kamal allegedly packed the sword and his bloodstained clothes into a bag, took a shower and left on his scooter. Police said he later disposed of the bag and withdrew money from bank accounts before fleeing with nearly Rs 12.75 lakh in cash.
Technical surveillance tracked his movement from Delhi towards Gorakhpur, where he allegedly planned to escape to Nepal before abruptly changing course and heading towards Mathura to throw investigators off the trail.
He was intercepted near Mathura Railway Station, where police recovered a total of Rs 12.75 lakh in cash and a scooter allegedly used to flee after the murder.
Police said, however, that CCTV footage became the biggest clue in unravelling the case. The footage established that after the couple’s two children left the house in the morning, only the accused and the victim remained inside.
During the investigation, police discovered that the accused had also purchased a sword, which was later recovered and found to be the actual murder weapon.
He also confessed that he intended to dispose of the weapon after watching The Staircase, believing it would frustrate the investigation. The team, however, said scientific investigation, CCTV analysis and technical surveillance dismantled the carefully planned escape strategy.
Investigators revealed how a man watched a hit HBO crime documentary series and believed he could replicate its cover-up tactics in real life.
The Staircase, which premiered on HBO in 2022, chronicles the true story of Michael Peterson, a North Carolina man convicted of murdering his wife, Kathleen, in 2003.
The series documents Peterson’s defense strategy over years of legal proceedings and appeals, including claims about the circumstances of her death on a staircase.
Police said Kamal Singh had absorbed lessons from watching the show and attempted to stage the crime scene and hide evidence in ways he believed the series had demonstrated would confound investigators.
Singh’s alleged plan unraveled rapidly as Delhi police employed modern forensic technology, CCTV surveillance and technical tracking to follow his movements across state lines.