New Delhi: Four men were arrested for allegedly stabbing to death a 72-year-old woman in a bid to grab her properties, police said on Thursday.
The accused watched several videos on YouTube on how to successfully execute a murder and used awls and ice picks in order to evade being charged under the Arms Act if caught, they said.
Arms Act covers firearms and sharp-edged weapons but does not include articles designed solely for domestic or agricultural uses, according to the Indian Penal Code.
Sudha Gupta, a resident of Laxmi Nagar in east Delhi, was stabbed multiple times on Tuesday. She succumbed to injuries during treatment at a city hospital later in the day.
One of the accused, Monu Dedha (26) was a property dealer and knew that the woman owned several plots in Mandawali. He planned to grab the properties using fraudulent means and hatched a conspiracy with his associates -- Pushpender Yadav (18), Sarthak Nagar (19) and Vikas Chaudhary (20) -- to kill her, they said.
“Upon the examination of the body, multiple piercing marks on the left shoulder, face, chest, waist and back were noticed. We contacted the hospital who opined that the marks were caused by a sharp object,” a senior police officer said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Amrutha Guguloth said after analysing CCTV camera footage and call details of the victim, police identified and arrested Dedha, Nagar and Yadav from Rithoj village in Gurugram.
On the day of the killing, the trio followed Gupta as she was returning home from one of her plots near Shri Ram Chowk in Mandawali. They attacked her under a railway bridge in Mandawali and fled.
The accused were then dropped off at Gurugram by Chaudhary in his car, which has been seized, police said.