Two youths, including grandson of the elderly woman who was found dead in her Rohini flat on December 19, were arrested today for alleged murder and robbery.
They had allegedly "strangled" the 74-year-old woman to death before robbing gems, jewellery and other expensive articles from her residence at Sector 13 in outer Delhi's Rohini sub-city.
"The accused were identified as Harshit Jain (21), an engineering student from a prominent private university in Delhi-NCR, who is the grandson of the deceased, and his friend Gaurav Tyagi, who is a bus driver.
"They allegedly strangled to death Kailashwati (74) and made away with at least 10 gem stones, seven expensive watches and some silver jewellery," said DCP (Outer) Vikramjit Singh.
According to police, Harshit, who was lately living with his grandparents and was allegedly addicted to drugs, knew that his grandfather went for evening stroll around 3.30 PM and would usually return in two hours everyday, leaving Kailashwati alone at home.
On Thursday, the duo went near the Kailashwati's house but could not approach her for some reasons. However, they returned confirming the elderly couple's schedule and taking note of some other details.
On Friday, Tyagi approached the target, while she was home with her grandson (prime accused) Harshit, claiming that he was an AC technician and the elderly woman's son (Harshit's father) had sent him. But the woman called up her son to cross-check and he refused, following which Tyagi had to leave.
On Saturday, Tyagi managed to sneak into the house and he, along with Harshit, strangulated Kailashwati to death with a shawl before taking away the loot, with which they were to settle some loans taken earlier by them allegedly for buying intoxicants.
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Kailashwati's body was discovered by her husband who called up the police, following which a case of murder was registered at Prashant Vihar police station, said police.
During investigation, Harshit allegedly misled the police claiming that he was not present at the time of then incident because he was busy tracking his girlfriend who was kidnapped.
Later, evidences, obtained mostly from CCTV grabs, turned out to be in contrary to Harshit's claims and he spilled the beans on being grilled. The duo was arrested on the wee hours today, police said.
Harshit earlier studied at Jaipur but he had to return because of some health issues. After coming here, he took admission at the private college in Greater Noida, said police.
Around two years ago, Harshit had left his residence following an altercation with his father and started living at a paying guest accommodation in Noida-Sector 32. During that period, he came in touch with Tyagi and soon he was soon disqualified for appearing in second year exams.
When he ran out of money, he returned to his his parents house. When his parents went to Kolkata for a wedding recently, they sent Harshit to his grandparent's house, where he did an early evaluation of their belongings and allegedly hatched a plan, roping in his friend Tyagi, police added.
