An Indian-American man and his girlfriend have been arrested for hatching a conspiracy to hire a hitman to kill the former's estranged wife.
Narsan Lingala, 55, and his 52-year-old girlfriend Sandya Reddy have been charged with one count of murder-for-hire and were produced before US Magistrate Judge Michael A Hammer in Newark federal court.
Both of them were arrested without bail.
According to a complaint filed in May 2018, Lingala was in a holding cell at the Middlesex County Superior Courthouse as he awaited a court hearing. While there, he asked another inmate if he knew anyone who could kill his estranged wife. The inmate responded in affirmative.
In June 2018, at the direction of the law enforcement body, the inmate introduced Lingala to an undercover agent posing as a hitman. Over subsequent weeks, Lingala and the undercover police officer spoke over phone and planned to meet in person when Lingala travelled from Indiana to New Jersey.
On August 18, 2018, Lingala and the undercover agent planned to meet outside a New Jersey shopping mall.
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Later that day, Lingala and Reddy arrived at the mall and approached the cop.
Lingala introduced Reddy and said that she was in the know-how of what was going on. The trio then entered the undercover cop's car.
They proceeded to have a conversation that was video recorded. The police officer asked Lingala to confirm what he wanted him to do and the accused said, "I want that woman to be out of my life... totally. Never again. She never comes back."
During the conversation, the undercover cop asked, "You want me to take care of her?" to which Lingala responded, "Yeah."
The undercover cop stated, "She's done, I'm going to kill her. End of story." Lingala responded, "Yeah. End of story."