HYDERABAD: In a shocking case that appears to be recreated from Mahesh Babu starrer Dookudu -- where the hero’s father pulls off the oxygen mask from the villain’s face -- criminals killed a sexagenarian who was sleeping at his house by pulling off his oxygen mask. The incident happened in Rajendranagar in early hours of Friday. The criminals also looted Rs 50 lakh in cash and 50 tolas of gold.
The offenders -- police suspect that there were two of them -- gagged Rajender Prasad Agarwal (68), who eventually died, and tied up his limbs. They also, allegedly, blindfolded his wife Taramati Bai, who was sleeping in the same room, and gagged her and tied her up. She, however, managed to set herself free and called the family doctor.
The doctor arrived and informed that Rajendra Prasad had died. Later, their son Rohith, who resides in the same street rushed to the spot and alerted police. Cops now suspect the role of insiders.
According to them, Rajender Prasad Agarwal was a businessman who was residing with his wife Taramati Bai (65) in a duplex house at Sirimalli colony in Hyderguda.
The couple has two sons and a daughter. While one son Rohith Kumar Agarwal resides in the same street, the second one Deepak Kumar Agarwal stays away from the parents. Rajender has businesses and properties in different parts of the city. For a long time, he had been suffering from various health ailments.
Recently, there was a liquid accumulation in his lungs and the doctors suggested usage of oxygen mask to ease breathing complications.
On Thursday night, the couple, as usual, went to sleep in the bedroom located in the ground floor of their residence.
Around 1.45am, Taramati woke up to a noise and allegedly found two persons in their room. Before she could react, they overpowered her, blindfolded her eyes, gagged her mouth, ties her hands and legs and then went towards Rajender and repeated the same thing to him. Later they looted the cash and jewellery from the almirah beside the bed and fled from the spot.
“We are working with available clues. The money that was stolen was proceedings from the sale of a flat around 5 months ago.” “The jewellery belonged to the deceased’s wife. We will proceed with investigations based on further clues and evidences,” said Rajendranagar police station inspector G Suresh.