Drug addict arrested for woman’s murder

Three days after a 70-year-old woman living alone was found dead in her house with around a dozen stab wounds on her body in west Delhi’s Khyala village, the Delhi Police on Saturday claimed to have solved the murder case. A 30-year-old unemployed man, also a drug addict, living in the same locality was arrested on Saturday by a joint team of the north-west and west districts police.

Police said the arrested man Subhash, alias, Gaurav, had entered Laxmi Devi’s home with the intention to rob her since he knew that she lived alone. Police, however, said he had not planned on killing her.

“But since the elderly woman identified him, resisted his robbery attempt, and tried to raise an alarm, Subhash panicked and killed her. He feared that leaving her alive would lead to his arrest, if she informed neighbours and the police about his crime,” said a senior investigator.

The elderly woman was stabbed in her face, chest and back with an ice pick. She was also attacked on her head with a blunt object, probably a hammer, multiple times.

Milind Dumbre, deputy commissioner of police (northwest), said that Subhash was the same suspect who was seen in a CCTV camera dressed like a woman and walking in the lane outside Laxmi’s home around 5.30pm. The suspect was carrying a backpack and there were blood spots on his clothes. Subhash’s interrogation revealed that the main door of Laxmi’s home was ajar when he entered. He stabbed her multiple times with an ice pick and smashed her head against the wooden charpoy. Thereafter, he ransacked the home and fled with valuables, said police.