NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has arrested a 24-year-old man who along with his two more associates allegedly murdered an 88-year-old woman during burglary at the victim’s single storey house in north east Delhi’s Karawal Nagar area.
The accused, identified as Badal, used to work at a hospital in Vaishali, Ghaziabad (UP) as a housekeeper. The other two suspects, identified as Kamal (father of Badal) and Ashok (son of Kamal’s sister), are still at large. The victim woman named Shanti Devi, who used to live alone, was found dead at her residence on January 29 morning. She was allegedly smothered to death and her hands were tied.
The house was ransacked and the lock of almirah was broken which raised suspicion of a robbery. Accordingly, the police registered a case under sections 392 (robbery) and 302 (murder) of the IPC and began probing the matter.
“It was a hard nut to crack, as ‘no’ CCTV was found installed near the place of crime. When police teams started analyzing the available CCTV footage of nearby areas, it was a herculean task like ‘tracing a needle in the hay stack’,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said.
During investigation, it surfaced that on that night there was a Jagaran in a nearby lane and thus there was a lot of public movement. On thorough analysis of CCTV footage several persons were shortlisted and their particulars were verified through local informers and other sources.
“At last, three suspects were earmarked through CCTV footage. Their route was trailed which ended at a dead end in the area of Rama Garden, Karawal Nagar Extension. The residents of those areas were verified one by one. On verification, it surfaced that a house is locked for 3-4 days and their residents are not seen by neighbours,” the DCP said.
The investigators began gathering more information about them from local sources. The detailed analysis of call detail records of their mobile phones, confirmed their presence near the house of the victim on the fateful night.
A team which was stationed at that suspected house in Rama Garden, Karawal Nagar nabbed badal when he was clandestinely trying to enter the house.