New Delhi: Seven persons, including two juveniles, have been apprehended in connection with the murder of three persons of a family at central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar area, police said on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Rajan Singh, Rajendra Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Harender, Ram Kishore and the two juveniles.
While Harender and Ram Kishore were arrested from their native village in UP's Bulandshahr, the others were nabbed from Delhi. One accused is still at large, DCP (Central) Paramaditya said.
On Sunday morning, Sanjay (50), his wife Jyoti (48) and their son Pawan (21), were found murdered at their third floor residence in Old Rajinder Nagar, and the house was found ransacked. Jyoti and Pawan's bodies were discovered first and later Sanjay's body was found shoved inside a closet.
The police registered a case of murder and as many as 25 teams were engaged in the investigation. Sanjay's brother, with whom he had a property dispute, initially turned out to be the prime suspect in the case, which sent the police teams into a tizzy.
Yesterday the police received a tip off, which led to the arrests of Rajan and Rajendra. They spilled the beans during interrogation and the others too were apprehended by midnight, said Paramaditya.
Police said that the motive of the murders has turned out to be robbery as victim Sanjay, who was a government servant-turned-property dealer, had conveyed to Rajan that he had earned huge cash after the recent sale of a property and he needed to invest the money, for which he also seeked Rajan's help. However, the police haven't yet recovered any cash from the possession of the accused.
Sanjay, who himself was an accused in atleast nine cases of cheating and forgery and was in jail for six months during 2013-14, met Rajan in the prison. They became friends and stayed in touch even after their release. Sanjay had also offered Rajan to be a partner in his property business, said police.
Rajan, who was already an accused in the case of a murder of a woman in Dwarka, allegedly hatched the plan to kill Sanjay for the money he desired to invest and roped in others for its execution, police said.
The accused first went near Sanjay's residence on Thursday for a recee and returned. On Saturday evening, all eight of them assembled at northwest Delhi's Kanhaiya Nagar area and left for the mission together, said police.
Rajan, along with four others, who were introduced to Sanjay as parties with whom he could invest the cash he had procured following the sale of a property, went inside the premises.
Meanwhile, two waited outside on the staircase, keeping an eye on the neighbours, and another was deployed outside the building, police said.
The discussion stretched long and food was ordered before Rajan and his associates could ask Sanjay to come to the second bedroom alone for discussing some confidential matters, while his wife did the chores at the kitchen and son, Pawan, watched TV in another bedroom.
It was Sanjay whom they first allegedly strangulated to death and shoved his body inside the closet. Then they held Pawan from behind and allegedly strangulated him too and covered his body with a light blanket, on the other room. They waited for Jyoti to come and allegedly strangulated her too with a stole, police said.
After that they ransacked the house, allegedly looking for the stored cash but could not find too much. They allegedly made off with whatsoever they could manage to lay their hands on. But the amount of robbery is yet to be evaluated, said police.
According to the police, the matter came to light around 8.50 am next morning when the domestic help of the family entered the house and and discovered the bodies of Jyoti and Pawan in the apartment. She raised an alarm, following which the police were informed.
