Alcohol glasses and a condom had initially led the police into believing that the killing of an elderly couple and their nursing attendant in Delhi three days ago was executed by the latter's lover, officials said on Wednesday.
It only emerged later that the triple killing in Vasant Vihar area was carried out with an intention to commit robbery, the police said.
During a probe, one of the accused, Preeti Sehrawat, turned out to be the acquaintance of the elderly couple and it was a case of robbery that she allegedly carried out with her live-in partner, Manoj Bhatt (39), officials said.
According to the police, the two were nabbed from a hotel in Gurgaon on Wednesday morning and confessed to the killings.
The bodies of the elderly couple, Vishnu Mathur (78) and Shashi Mathur (75), as well as their nursing attendant, Khushbu Nautiyal (24), were found with their throats slit at their residence on Sunday morning.
To divert the attention from the robbery angle, the accused poured alcohol into two glasses. They also left an unused condom to mislead the investigators into believing that the elderly couple were killed by the "lover" of the nursing attendant after they were caught being "intimate", the police said.
The police did initially suspect the involvement of the fiance of the nursing attendant. They were working on the "lover" theory and got diverted from the robbery angle.