One killed, another robbed as crimes against elderly escalate

Despite several steps taken by the Delhi Police to curb crime against senior citizens, it continues to escalate in the national Capital. The major crime incidents include murder, dacoity and robbery.

The recent incidents that were reported in last 24 hours in the national Capital includes a murder of retired vice-principal and a robbery of an 80-year-old woman.

The first incident was reported in North-West Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area where a 76-year-old man was killed by unidentified persons who allegedly ransacked the house. 

The exact amount of the robbed items is yet to be ascertained. According to the police, at the time of the incident, Pratap Singh Dhaiya, a retired vice-principal from a government school, was alone in his residence. The incident took place at around 12.30 pm on Sunday. Prima facie it suggests that the accused had a friendly entry. The incident was reported to the police by his maid who reached the house and found the doors open. When she entered, she found Dhaiya tied up with a rope, lying unconscious on the floor. The house was also ransacked. Dhaiya used to live with his wife — Meenakshi, who is also a retired vice-principal. Their three sons are based in America while the daughter is married in Rohini. “We are investigating the case from all plausible angles. A case has been registered at Bharat Nagar police station,” Vijay Singh, DCP (North-West) said. In another incident, an 80-year-old woman was robbed by two persons posing as Delhi policemen in Moti Nagar area. The accused, who are yet to be identified approached Shanti Devi, a resident of Sudarshan Park area, while she was returning from a hospital. 

According to the police, the two men approached her for help and introduced themselves as policemen. They allegedly asked her to take out her gold jewellery, worth Rs 4 lakh and hand them over. When she refused, they told her that it’s a new protocol that has to be followed by senior citizens for their safety. They also told her that they will accompany her till their house and once she steps inside her residence, they will return the jewellery. The woman fell in their trap and handed over the jewellery to them. They kept the jewellery in a packet and once she reached her residence, they returned the packet.

When the woman opened the packet, she found artificial jewellery inside the packet.

Meanwhile, the duo managed to escape. She raised an alarm and locals made a PCR call. A case under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at Moti Nagar police station and CCTV cameras are being scanned to identify the culprits. 

It is worth mentioning that according to the data of the National Crime Records Bureau, as far as overall crimes against senior citizens are concerned it shows Delhi as the most unsafe city.

With a rate of 89 crimes per one lakh elderly citizens, senior citizens in the national Capital are almost five times more likely to become victims of crime than the rest of the country. The national rate for such crimes stands at 18.3 per cent.