Book Excerpt- Swipe Right to Kill: The Jaipur Tinder Murder by Anirban Bhattacharyya

Read an exclusive excerpt from Swipe Right to Kill: The Jaipur Tinder Murder by Anirban Bhattacharyya (Penguin India, 2024).

“Anirban takes us into the minds of the killers, and writes a gritty, shocking true crime masterpiece”
S HUSSAIN ZAIDI (Dongri To Dubai, Black Friday)

AUTHOR’S NOTE

If you are not familiar with this case, here is the starter kit.

On 2 May 2018, Dushyant Sharma, a twenty-eight-year-old man, goes missing. The next morning his family receives a ransom call. They make a partial payment initially, promising to arrange the balance amount.

On the same day, the body of a man is discovered, packed in a trolley bag in Jaipur. The person has been stabbed multiple times. The body is identified to be that of Dushyant Sharma.

With only a bag, a phone call and a body as clues, the Rajasthan Police used their investigative skills and sheer presence of mind to unravel one of the most shocking crimes of India.

The murder was the culmination of years of devious crimes being committed on social media and dating sites. And more startling was the revelation of the mastermind behind it all—a woman named

Priya Seth. This is the true story of the Jaipur Tinder Murder Case.

Chapter Eighteen: The Interview That Shocked the World

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj is an Indian journalist, documentary filmmaker and men’s rights activist. Deepika rose to prominence after producing the documentary Martyrs of Marriage, which covered the abuse of criminal section 498A (anti-dowry law) by brides and their families to entrap men with false charges. It was her video interview58 with the three accused that went viral on YouTube and people across the world met the cold-blooded, I care-a-damn, psychopath Priya Seth for the first time on 25 June 2008, i.e., fifty-two days after the trio had been arrested.

Suddenly, the Jaipur Tinder case became a huge rage thanks to the media. It was also a favourite whipping horse for news channels as they projected the case to be the fallout of social media and made Tinder sound like a place where people of loose morals congregated in the hope of a hook-up. The perception was those looking for real relationships and love had migrated to Bumble and Hinge. So the media was partially right, but then again generalizations are prone to be also tinged with dollops of bias and agendas.

Needless to say, this was a great opportunity for the media to take a stab at the ‘online/virtual’ world—a nemesis that both of them had been at loggerheads with as the online world married with ever-improving technology made the print and television rather redundant. Needless to say, one of the first things that struck the people at court when the trio were brought in for their remand hearing was Priya’s attitude. Although her face did not betray her inner thoughts and emotions, she held her head up and walked with confidence in her designer shoes. Her gait and demeanour were devoid of any remorse. Deepika, who had always been interested in women who abuse the loopholes and gender biases in the Indian law to get away, especially when it comes to women committing crimes against men, found this case interesting. And she promptly got special permission as a journalist to interview the trio, the IO and Dushyant’s father Rameshwar. The interview footage that emerged in 2018 sent chills down the spines of the viewers as Priya displayed her entitlement, pushing her own fabricated story of innocence and justification, blind to the heinous crime she had just orchestrated.

At this point in time, in 2018, I had no intention of writing this book—I was just aghast at Priya and her matter of-fact interview. It was much later in 2022, by the time I had two true-crime bestsellers, and I had been studying criminal behaviour closely and writing about it for Savdhaan India and Crime Patrol, that the idea came to write this book—as an all-access look at the crime and the criminals. And I must thank Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj for giving the world the first glimpse of the trio.

I studied the video interview once again minute by minute, second by second—this time by going into the heads of the three criminals to study their thoughts, their body language, their motives and the language they used to convey their thoughts. What you are about to read will take you deep into their heads . . . The interview clip begins with Priya casually flicking her hair back over her left shoulder.

All the while she smiles and says, ‘These days, when I see a camera, I feel like breaking it.’ Her smile is natural, and she looks away from the camera, as if we have caught a celebrity mid-conversation at a party and she is making a casual statement about the paparazzi harassing her.

Now from here on, there are three versions to ‘who took the decision to kill Dushyant?’ And ‘who carried out the murder?’

1. Priya’s version: the planning is done by her and Dikshant, but the act of the murder is done wholly and solely by Dikshant, aided partially by Lakshya. She is a mere spectator.

2. Dikshant’s version: This puts Priya in the dock for planning and also nails her as the murderer.

3. Lakshya’s version: In this version, Priya and Dikshant are co-conspirators, while Lakshya is the spectator.

Priya’s version

‘Dushyant’ as she says his name, her body language and facial expression break down for a second before she regains her composure. It is a momentary lapse of poise and confidence, which perhaps is reflective of a fleeting sense of regret, before she lapses back into the Priya Seth. ‘I did not even know Dushyant’s name. I met him on Tinder. He did not even tell me his real name, real identity. He told me he was very rich, has lots of money . . .’ There is a long sigh here before she continues. And all the while, she does not look directly into the camera, even once. Her head and eyes dart all around the room. During police interrogation, one of the primary things that the interrogator looks out for to study nonverbal human behaviour, is to look for breaks in eye contact.

The eyes are the most expressive area and they communicate without using words. It is the window to our soul and thoughts. Losing eye contact during the response is commonly interpreted as deceitful behavior. The break in eye contact is where the subject is mentally running away from you. Many inexperienced interrogators often make the mistake of challenging the subject to look them in the eye while responding to the questions. This is a huge no-no! As this creates ‘false eye contact’, when the suspect is forced to look at the cop, and the interrogator loses the advantage of being able to read the true and real breaks in eye contact that may or may not lead to clues or a lead. If ‘false eye contact’ happens, then the interrogator must fall back on studying the body language of the accused as usually, the breaks in eye contact are accompanied by other deceptive body language cues—ticks, a monotonous action like scratching, restless shaking of the legs, quick batting of the eyelids are often signs of nervousness.

‘I was living in with Dikshant and he had a debt of Rs 21 lakh.’ And this is where we get a glimpse into her mind. Her micro-expressions of constantly blinking and a sudden jerk to her head to look down before uttering the following sentence is interesting, as she pins the ‘need’ for the crime on Dikshant.

‘He was looking for someone to get that money from.’ And it is here that Priya, knowingly or unknowingly, legally defines the motive for the crime, and that the motive came from Dikshant Kamra. It was he who was looking for someone, it wasn’t we. I love legalese and getting under the legal skin to dissect it and see what interpretations it has . . . And so let’s study about ‘motive’. Whenever a crime is committed, the court always takes into account the offender’s motive for committing the crime and the preparation made in committing the crime. There is always a motive behind every act. According to Advocate Sanjeev Sirohi, ‘It is motive that propels and acts as a catalyst responsible for any act being committed. Therefore, its importance in analysing the real reason behind any offender committing any crime can hardly be overstated. Many difficult cases have been solved by the courts by evaluating motive and correlating it with the facts and circumstances of those cases.’

And Priya had pinned the ‘motive’ squarely on Dikshant and his debts. In the video, she goes on to say, ‘So we made this plan together that we will kidnap someone, ask for ransom and then kill that person. We had planned the murder already. It wasn’t fixed who it would be, when it would be but it was planned.’ And here in the video, it is perhaps her hubris that makes her confess to having made the plans and intention to murder even before the kidnapping. Did she think of herself as a star being interviewed and getting media attention? So much so that she let her guard down, let her street-smart instincts disappear and casually admit that it was a pre-planned murder, not realizing that this video could become her nemesis and admission of guilt? There would be no way the court could overlook this video. In a criminal case, the motive and the intent are two foundations on which the case is built upon.

And next are the modus operandi, the act, the nature and the extent of the crime. Priya already established the motive and intent. ‘So when I met Dushyant and he lied that he is very rich, we kidnapped him and asked for ransom. But later we realized he didn’t have anything.’ At this point, journalist Deepika Bhardwaj poses the question to Priya: ‘Dushyant’s father gave you money. But you still killed him (Dushyant). Why?’ And this is the first WTF moment in the video when Priya looks dead straight at the camera, and in one remorseless hurried breath, she casually says, ‘We killed him before we got the money!’ And then she continues to stare expressionless at the camera. There are no micro-expressions, no batting of eyelids, nothing!

Then the video dissolves into the next question. Her cavalier attitude is what shook the world. She didn’t have an iota of guilt or remorse. It was as if she was sure of this one thing, of this one decision—so much so that she could look straight at you and declare it without hesitation. While she kept looking away as she ‘cooked’ the story, here she knew exactly what she was saying! Shocking and blood-curdling!! Deepika: ‘How did you kill him?’ And here is the second masterstroke by Priya. She projects herself as an observer who merely ‘watched’ rather than physically ‘commits’ the act of crime.

A few sentences ago she had confessed to making the plans with Dikshant. But so cleverly she makes a distinction to separate the act of planning and preparation for a crime, and the actual act of committing the crime. She dons the garb of Lady Macbeth. In William Shakespeare’s eponymous play, Macbeth declares that he no longer intends to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth outraged, calls him a coward and questions his manhood: ‘When you durst do it,’ she says, ‘then you were a man’ (1.7.49). He asks her what will happen if they fail; she promises that as long as they are bold, they will be successful. Then she tells him her plan. Uncannily Priya appears to be Lady Macbeth to Dikshant’s Macbeth and Dushyant’s Duncan.

Priya makes the plan and then as per her version, gets Dikshant to kill, much like in Macbeth. And here is how Priya pinned the act of the murder on Dikshant. ‘First Dikshant strangled him. He survived. Then Lakshya smothered him with a pillow. He became unconscious but still didn’t die. Dikshant then asked me to get him a knife and slit his throat. He died.’ So according to Priya, it is Dikshant who, aided by Lakshya, tries to kill Dushyant and then it is Dikshant who asks her to get the murder weapon.

She transforms herself from being the mastermind to the reluctant accomplice, being manipulated by Dikshant! It is very difficult to believe anything that Priya says, considering her criminal past, the natural talent of weaving yarns and the propensity to hoodwink people, without remorse and for the sake of her selfish benefit. And of course her version has massive holes. And her smart-ass answers reveal more than she would like to.

• She implicates Lakshya as smothering Dushyant. This is an attempt on her part to take Lakshya down with her and Dikshant. The truth is Lakshya handed the pillow over to Dikshant.

• She says Dikshant asked her to get a knife, which she got for him. This is another spin. Priya was the one who went out to get the knife from the kitchen.

What Deepika’s video does next, is to reveal Priya’s past and this is the next WTF moment that shows you her callous, dispassionate and psychotic avatar, and reveals the story about the knife. As soon as Deepika starts to ask the question, you see her eyes narrow and anger creep into her eyes because she knows where this question is headed and she doesn’t like it. It is because her past intentions connect to the present murder. It is the glimpse into her ruthless, entitled mind.

Deepika: The investigation officer of an earlier case says you told her that you got the knife to kill your ex-boyfriend . . . The ex-boyfriend that Deepika was referring to was Gurujar Singh whom she had blackmailed in 2017–18. Before Deepika can finish asking her the question, Priya interjects with a breathless tirade.

Priya: No. I didn’t buy that knife to kill him. My ex-boyfriend is a liar of the first order and a sick man. He filed a false case on me. It would be good if he dies. (And this is where Priya in her excitement reveals) I actually had to murder him only, but I didn’t do it.

And here she looks up and laughs. The act of murder, the power to snuff out someone’s life is reduced to a callous joke, a matter-of-fact statement. And she confesses in her trademark cavalier manner that she should have murdered him when she had the chance to. But she perhaps realizes that she has screwed up and revealed something she should not have and changes the story . . .

Priya: I brought (sic) that knife to cut my own nerve (sic) and actually did it.

And she sits back rolling her eyes, and batting her eyelids furiously, looking like a sulking, malfunctioning robot. The fact that she had thought about killing somebody and had even procured a probable weapon really helps us to understand her mind. Her spoilt-brat tantrums of her childhood of always getting what she wants had transformed her into psychotic monster. Her decision to kill Gurujar was due to her not getting her own way. Her plan of blackmailing had flopped. And now instead of throwing a tantrum, she was willing to murder. In her head, the tantrum had upped the stakes.

Similarly, the decision to kill Dushyant stemmed from the fact that firstly, she had been outwitted and out-bluffed. And secondly she was not getting what she had planned for. The decision was mainly driven by her Id: the stubborn subconscious that was not willing to accept defeat.

Do you remember kids from your childhood, the ones in the locality who owned the cricketing gear and when dismissed would throw a tantrum and walk away mid-game with the wickets and the cricket bat? Now multiply that tantrum to a hundred and here Priya had to spend a week in jail as Gurujar had called her bluff and had gotten her arrested! And boy, was she still pissed at him!

Her breathless tirade comes to an end and her expression is that of anger. Deepika allows the scene to continue instead of cutting away. Priya sits back and her expression softens as for the first time we get to see a sense of frustration in her with the realization that it is all over. Deepika asks her if she had stabbed Dushyant? This time, a much softer Priya says no, she didn’t. And the biggest lie in her statement is ‘Dikshant slit his throat.’

When ten stab wounds were found on Dushyant’s neck, why didn’t she say ‘stabbed’? The action of stabbing is very clearly different from slitting the throat. And she was a smart, educated girl who would know the difference. So was this the wrong ingredient in the soup of lies she was cooking to implicate Dikshant solely via the video interview? Her version is replete with contradictions and holes. Deepika would go on to interview the other two, and not surprisingly they tried to implicate each other, and minimize their own participation in the crime.

Excerpted with permission of author Anirban Bhattacharyya and publishers Penguin India of Swipe Right to Kill: The Jaipur Tinder Murder by Anirban Bhattacharyya (Penguin India, 2024).

About the Book

From a perfect match to a perfect murder!

In May 2018, an abandoned suitcase was discovered on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. Inside was the dismembered body of Dushyant Sharma, a 28-year-old businessman. from Delhi. Within 48 hours of the discovery, the Rajasthan Police managed to solve the case. But the revelations were both chilling and unnerving. It introduced the world to the evil machinations of Priya Seth―a woman who self-confessed to conning a thousand men and her two accomplices, Dikshant Kamra and Lakshya Walia.

With detailed inputs from the cop who solved the case, SHO Gur Bhoopendra Singh, bestselling author, the creator-producer of Savdhaan India and the producer of Crime Patrol, Anirban Bhattacharyya, puts together a sensational and blood-curdling account of people whose greed, ambition and lust led them to commit one of the most heinous crimes in recent history, a case that has now earned the moniker of the infamous Jaipur Tinder Murder Case.

To buy the book: India | International | Singapore

About the Author

Anirban Bhattacharyya wears many hats – an author, a poet, a standup comedian, a movie actor, a television and media professional, mainstream content creator, motivational speaker and a standup comedian. He is the author of the No.1 true crime bestseller The Deadly Dozen: India’s Most Notorious Serial Killers and India’s Money Heist: The Chelembra Bank Robbery both published by Penguin India.

He is the Creator, Producer, Director and Writer of one of India’s most loved true crime shows on Television – Savdhaan India. His day job is as a television content producer having produced hit TV shows on Indian television channels like Crime Patrol, Fear Files and Ishq Kills.

He has been the Content Head at Channel [v] India,and Head of Brand Solutions and Non-Fiction at The Walt Disney Company (India).

He is an actor having acted in Vijay 69, Sui Dhaaga, Opium and Mission Mangal. He is also a standup comedian when he is not deep diving into crime for his television shows or his books.

To know more about the author: www.linktr.ee/anirbanb