Man arrested for murdering septuagenarian woman

A 35-year-old rickshaw puller who acted as a plumber to enter the house of a 75-year-old woman in northwest Delhi's Shalimar Bagh area and later fled with jewellery, killing the septuagenarian, was on Monday arrested by the police.

According to senior police officers, fifteen teams of police worked relentlessly and scanned through all the available criminal dossiers and recently released criminals from jails, in order to nab the murderer. It was on the Republic Day around 4:20 pm when it was reported that the senior citizen has been robbed and murdered at her home in Shalimar Bagh area.

The woman was found lying in a pool of blood with a deep stab wound on her neck. Her neighbours called up the police and she was rushed to a hospital. After being declared dead on arrival, her body was moved to a mortuary for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death.

DCP northwest, Aslam Khan said that a police team that reached the spot identified the deceased as Raj Rani Grover, who had been living alone after her husband's death. She has two sons who live separately. It was also found that some of her jewellery was missing.

"During the probe, it was discovered that the deceased had called two plumbers at her residence for repair of water motor. The two plumbers were interrogated and it was discovered that there was a third person also who pretended to be a plumber and electrician. The CCTV footage of the locality was scrutinised and police zeroed on the suspect," he said.

"Teams also worked on labour chowks so as to identify the accused. Finally, on Monday morning, the accused was arrested in a raid from H-3 Block, Jahangir Puri," Khan added.

Two earrings, one gold necklace, two gold bangles and a mobile phone that belonged to the deceased were recovered, police said.