Police have filed a charge sheet in the rape-cum-murder case of a 81-year-old woman here and accused her domestic help of strangulating her and then setting her body on fire before decamping with valuables from her south Delhi residence.
The charge sheet said 21-year-old Neeraj Saki after sexually assaulting and killing the victim tried to mislead neighbours about her whereabouts while fleeing from the house with cash and jewellery.
The magisterial court, which has taken cognisance of the charge sheet, has sent the file before additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna for further trial in the case.
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The court has now fixed September 24 to hear arguments on charges against Saki.
The police in its charge sheet claimed that Saki had raped the woman before strangling her and then setting her body on fire.
The accused, who hails from Madhubani in Bihar, was initially arrested on charges of murdering Rekha Duggal at her GK-II residence on July 8.
"After murdering Rekha, he (Saki) set her body on fire using kerosene and dragged it to an adjacent room. He then informed neighbours that Rekha had not returned from her evening walk," the charge sheet states.
Narrating the sequence of events, the police in its charge sheet said that the accused had first raped the woman and then killed her.
"He then set her body ablaze in order to destroy the evidence. He also told the court that he stole valuables from her house after the incident," it added.
Rekha's husband K K Duggal was a former editor of UNI. He died in 2005.
