An elderly couple was killed and robbed of more than Rs 4 lakh by unidentified persons at their two-storey home in Northeast Delhi’s Gokalpuri Monday.
Police said they received information about the incident at 7.19 am from the couple’s son, following which a team rushed to the spot and found Radhey Shyam Verma (72) and his wife Veena (68) in a pool of blood on their bed on the ground floor. Their throats were slit and cupboards in two other rooms were ransacked, said police.
Police said the couple’s son Ravi Rattan (38), his wife Monika and their son Jayesh were asleep in their room on the first floor at the time.
According to DCP (Northeast) Joy Tirkey, Radhey Shyam had retired as the vice-principal of a Delhi government school. Police said the family had been living in the area for the past 38 years. “Rs 4.5 lakh and some jewellery are missing from the house and the probable mode of entry is through the rear portion. Ravi last saw his parents around 10.30 last night,” he said.
Senior officers said the couple had recently sold off the back portion of their plot and received an advance payment of Rs 5 lakh two days ago. “It is suspected that the accused persons knew about the deal and the cash kept in the house. After breaking the lock on the back gate, the accused, most likely two of them, entered the room where the couple was asleep. The duo first tried to choke Veena and she tried to resist. Hearing the scuffle, Radhey Shyam intervened but the other accused held him down too… they eventually slit the couple’s throats,” said an officer.
The officer said after the murder, the accused went to another room and broke open the steel almirah. “After robbing some cash, they went to a room on the first floor, which had another cupboard in which cash was kept, broke its lock, stole the money and fled.”
The DCP said a case under IPC sections 302 (murder), 392 (punishment for robbery), 457 (lurking house trespass) has been lodged. “Teams have been deployed to scan CCTVs. Statements of both Ravi and Monica have been recorded — they said they were asleep and did not hear any sounds of a scuffle… The planning of the murder seems meticulous. The accused had observed the movement of the elderly couple and the location of their room being close to the back gate,” said police.
The couple’s daughter, Manju (42), said: “I last spoke to them around 8 pm yesterday… they did not have any enmity with anyone and used to hardly go out of their house.”
The post-mortem of the couple is yet to be conducted. Raids are ongoing and no arrest has been made yet.
