Delhi double murder: Family friend who borrowed Rs 4 lakh arrested

PTI, Aug 17, 2022, 8:42 PM IST

A 21-year-old man was arrested in connection with the northeast Delhi’s Subhash Park double murder case, police said on Wednesday. The accused was a family friend of the victims and borrowed about Rs 4-5 lakh from them, they said.

Two women — bedridden Vimla Devi (70) and her daughter-in-law Dolli Rai (45) — were found murdered with multiple stab wounds at their home in Subhash Park area on Tuesday.

According to police, accused Harshit had borrowed about Rs 4-5 lakh from Dolli’s son Shashank on interest. When Harshit came under pressure to return the money, he hatched a foolproof plan to murder the two women and rob the house in the absence of Shashank (25) and his brother Sarthak (23), they said.

The two brothers had gone for a holiday trip to Uttarakhand on the night of August 12. The incident took place on August 13, while the two women were found murdered three days later on August 16 by Shashank and his brother when they returned from the trip, said Sanjay Kumar Sain, Deputy Commission of Police (northeast).

Police said Shashank had assigned the responsibility of taking care of his mother and grandmother to Harshit, but instead he used this opportunity to execute his murder plan. The accused bought a steel knife from the market and kept it inside his scooty.

The DCP said on the basis of local intelligence, it surfaced that Dolly used to go for morning walk with her pet dog daily. But after scanning CCTV footage, it emerged that she did not go for walk on August 14. The neighbours said that Dolly was seen with Harshit on the evening of August 13 when she had gone to a temple, Sain said.

When Harshit was examined, he tried to mislead police by continuously changing his statement, and at one time he revealed visiting the house on August 14 which raised the suspicion over him, the officer said.

”We got to know that Harshit had borrowed Rs 4-5 lakh on interest from Shashank and lent the money further to some other party on higher rate of interest and was not able to return the money to Shashank due to financial crunch,” the DCP said.

When Harshit’s mobile phone was checked, it was found that he had searched about the techniques and gadgets to detect gold and also searched for the shops used to exchange gold for cash. Further analysis of CCTV footage revealed that Harshit was seen carrying something in his hand on August 14 near his house, the DCP said.

”During interrogation, he broke down and confessed that he committed the crime. He revealed that he was jobless and under debt and was also aware that the front CCTV camera of the house is not functioning,” Sain said.

The knife and scooty used in commission of the crime, and looted cash and jewellery were recovered from the accused’s house located in Shahdara area of Delhi, police said.

Elaborating the incident, the accused told police that on August 13, after returning from temple with Dolli, he killed her by smothering her with a pillow and stabbing. Then he reached the first floor and killed Vimla in the same way and also locked the pet dog in a room. Later, the accused ransacked the whole house in search of money and jewellery, and looted everything his hands could reach on, police said.

”As part of his plan, Harshit went upstairs and left the door open with the objective to mislead the investigators. After reaching his house, he suddenly recollected about CCTV camera installed at the roof of the victims’ house. On August 14, he again reached there, snapped the CCTV camera and left,” Sain said.

”After examining the call detail record of Vimla Devi, we got to know that she used to call Dolli around 15-20 times for her daily needs as she was fully dependent upon her. But there was no call from 9 pm onwards on August 13. This confirmed that the duo was murdered after 9 pm on August 13,” he added. On Tuesday, police received a call around 4.20 am regarding the double murder at Welcome police station.

When police reached the spot, they found the two women murdered. After due formalities, bodies were shifted to GTB Hospital for post mortem, said Sain. A case was registered under sections 302 (murder), 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrong­ful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code and investigation was taken up, police said.

In his statement to police, Shashank said that when he, along with his brother, returned home from Uttarakhand early Tuesday morning, he repeatedly knocked the door but it was unanswered. Later, he opened the door with the spare keys, he said.

”Thereafter, he found his mother Dolli lying on the sofa in a pool of blood on ground floor with stab wounds to her stomach, and on the first floor, he found his grandmother dead on the bed with stab wounds. The whole house was ransacked, and cash and jewellery were also missing,” the DCP said.

Shashank also told police that he runs a shop of puja items in Chandni Chowk. Before going on the trip, he assigned the responsibility of the shop as well as the house to Harshit, police said.