NEW DELHI:A 21-year-old domestic help, accused of murdering an 81-year-old woman at her residence in Greater Kailash area here, today told a local court that he had raped the victim before setting her on fire which led to her death.
The accused, Neeraj Saki, said this before the court when he was produced before it by Delhi Police following his arrest yesterday.
He also narrated the entire sequence of events to the judge saying he first raped the woman and later set her ablaze in order to destroy the evidence.
Saki, who was working as a domestic help at victim Rekha Duggal's house, also told the court that he had taken away the valuables from her house after murdering the woman.
During the hearing, police sought custodial interrogation of Saki, a resident of Madhubani in Bihar, saying they have to recover the articles which were missing from the house of the victim and has to quiz the accused about the same.
Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Anu Aggarwal allowed the contentions of the investigators and remanded Saki to four-day police custody. Duggal was residing on the ground floor of her house in Greater Kailash-II in south Delhi here. Duggal's husband K K Duggal was Editor of the United News of India (UNI) and died in 2005.
According to the police, in order to paint the incident as death due to fire, the accused told one of the neighbours that Rekha Duggal had gone out to park for a walk but had not returned. Police said she was rushed to the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where she was declared brought dead.
They further said Neeraj was present in the house and pretended to be calm initially. However, he broke down when he was questioned.