Murder of elderly couple: Domestic help arrested

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police have arrested a 22-year-old domestic help, who was on the run after he robbed and killed an elderly couple in north west Delhi's Ashok Vihar.

Police sources said that after murder of the elderly couple came to light on Saturday morning, cops held discussions with residents of the residential society, where the victims lived.

Most of the neighbours said Dinesh, one of the two domestic helps employed by the couple, could have been behind the incident.

Dinesh, who was employed for taking care of the bed-ridden 79-year-old Ram Lal Bhutani and his wife 73-year-old Kaushal, killed them on the intervening night of September 1 and 2 and then decamped with valuables.

Saturday was supposed to be Kaushal's birthday, and a few relatives were planning to come to their house that day.

Police analysed the call detail records of the accused and contacted his relatives, with whom he had got in touch on the day of the incident.

During inquiry, it was found that Dinesh had fled to his maternal uncle's house in Ara, Bihar, the police official said. The police team reached there and nabbed him on Sunday.

"During interrogation, he told police that he was hired on August 27 and the couple had quickly bonded with him. After they had told him that they did not have any children, he saw that they were well-off and did not have many visitors at their house," said the officer.

He initially thought of only stealing their valuables and fleeing, and on September 1, he reached their house and started stealing the valuables.

However, the elderly man woke up during this theft, and started questioning him. Panicked, Dinesh smothered the man and strangulated him to death. Hearing the commotion, Kaushal also woke up.

"When she tried to raise an alarm, Dinesh hit her with a sharp object multiple times on her head, killing her," said the officer. Police are yet to recover the weapon used to kill the elderly couple.

Ramlal was a retired government official, while Kaushal was a retired government school teacher.