28 February,2014 08:52 AM IST | | Agencies
A journalist managed to catch the person who killed his wife after getting a tip off — from their pet parrot
Hercule parrot: The parrot'u00c2u0080u00c2u0099s screeches made Vijay Sharma suspicious and eventually led to finding the killer. Representation pic
Agra: A journalist managed to catch the person who killed his wife after getting a tip off - from their pet parrot.
Hercule parrot: The parrot's screeches made Vijay Sharma suspicious and eventually led to finding the killer. Representation Pic
Vijay Sharma, the editor of a Hindi daily newspaper in Agra in Uttar Pradesh, returned home to find both his wife Neelam Sharma (45), and her pet dog, had been murdered.
The only survivor was Hercule the pet parrot, but he had been stunned into silence after witnessing the horrific killings.
The house had also been ransacked and jewellery and cash stolen.
Police had no obvious leads, but that changed when Vijay's nephew Ashutosh visited their house after the murder.
Screeches, vital clue Sharma said, "The parrot that was unusually quiet suddenly started shrieking and flapping around the cage. It was clearly distressed about something and only calmed down when Ashutosh left."
He added, "Then when I spoke to other people, every time I mentioned Ashutosh's name the parrot would start screeching. This made me really suspicious and I decided to call the police."
Police spokesman Shalabh Mathur said they looked at Ashutosh's phone records after being told he may be a suspect and found cause to bring him in for questioning.
Mathur said: "He said that he had gone together with a friend to his uncle's house with the intent of stealing and have been surprised by his aunt, who they had killed because they were worried she would have identified them to police. They had then robbed the place before fleeing."
He admitted he had also killed the dog worried that it could be used in an identity parade against him, but had not thought about killing the parrot which had been silent in its cage.
