Lucknow: Dogs don’t lie. Belgian Malinois certainly do not. One such dog from the sniffer squad of UP Police proved so recently by helping its masters catch two criminals guilty of murdering a 69-year-old woman, who by chance became a witness to their illicit relationship.The case pertains to the murder of an elderly mother-in-law carried out by a woman and her lover, both behind bars now.Lucknow Police cracked the Nishatganj case with the help of a Belgian Malinois sniffer dog.While Ranjana Verma, 36, and her lover Rajan Sharma, 21, strangled Nirmala Devi to death on Saturday afternoon after tying her hands and legs, cops had no whiff that the gruesome crime could have been committed for the petty reason that the elderly woman was opposed to their relationship.According to investigators, the Belgian Malinois was first made to smell key scent sources from the crime scene, including the victim’s clothes, bedding, and areas where signs of struggle were visible. The dog then began tracking from inside the room, moving through the house and towards the exit point, indicating the possible escape route used by the accused.The dog continued to follow the scent trail outside the house, navigating through a crowded locality before circling back towards a group of bystanders. It repeatedly showed alert behaviour—such as pausing, focusing, and attempting to move closer—around Rajan. Despite attempts by Rajan to blend into the crowd and shift position, the dog persistently returned to him, strengthening police suspicion.Witnesses were left stunned as the dog singled him out in a public setting, a crucial breakthrough that prompted immediate questioning.Investigations further revealed that the accused had deliberately switched off the house’s CCTV cameras between 2 pm and 4 pm to avoid detection. However, footage after 4 pm showed Ranjana leaving the house with Rajan, corroborating the dog squad’s findings.The crime came to light when the victim’s grandson, Aditya, 18, returned home around 4 pm and found his grandmother lying unconscious with her limbs tied. He alerted his father, Tridesh Verma, and tried contacting his mother.Police said the accused initially attempted to mislead investigators by staging the murder as a robbery, with Ranjana pretending to grieve and claiming she was not present at the time.However, inconsistencies in CCTV footage, combined with the dog squad’s precise tracking, led to sustained interrogation. Rajan eventually confessed, admitting that he switched off the CCTV system and conspired with Ranjana to carry out the murder.Explaining the role of sniffer dogs, a retired Belgian Malinois trainer from a paramilitary force said such dogs are trained to isolate and follow human scent molecules—skin cells and sweat particles—left at the crime scene. “They don’t identify a ‘criminal’ in a legal sense, but they track scent continuity. If a suspect has been at or near the crime scene recently, the dog can connect that scent trail with high accuracy, even in crowded environments,” the trainer explained. He added that Belgian Malinois are particularly effective due to their high intelligence, focus, and ability to work under pressure, making them ideal for crime scene tracking. “Rajan revealed that he was in a relationship with Ranjana for four years and that the victim strongly opposed it, which led them to plan the crime,” said ACP Mahanagar Ankit Kumar.
