55-yr-oldraped, killed ingulabibagh,1nabbed A lone slipper that helped cops crack case within hours

Police say victim lived alone in a one-room shop from where she used to sell puja materials; probe finds suspect visited her often

NEW DELHI: On Saturday, a day when Delhi students took to the streets to protest the rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinary doctor in Hyderabad on Wednesday, a 55-year-old woman was raped and murdered in north Delhi’s Gulabi Bagh.

Police said the woman lived alone, in a one-room shop, from where she used to sell material used for puja. According to investigators, on Saturday morning, a 75-year-old man, who used to visit the woman every day, arrived at her shop and found the door opened.

Finding it unusual, the man went inside and saw the woman lying unconscious on the floor. He rushed out and alerted the area residents who then reported the matter to the police.

A police team rushed to the spot and found her on the floor, her clothes in disarray. They took her to a hospital where the doctors pronounced her dead. A medical examination, prior to the autopsy, confirmed sexual assault, police said.

An investigator, who did not wish to be named, said the preliminary probe revealed that the woman was not married and lived alone in the shop. She used a public toilet nearby and had no one attending to her or checking on her, except for the elderly man who called on her every day, he said.

Police quickly launched an investigation and used the CCTV camera footage and information collected from neighbours to zero in on the suspect, a 22-year-old roadside vendor from the area. Police said in the CCTV footage, he was the person last seen leaving the woman’s one-room shop.

SEPTEMBER: A 59-year-old chartered accountant was shot dead in East Delhi's Patparganj by some unidentified bike-borne assailants when she was waiting for her husband in her I-20 car near a temple. JUNE: An elderly couple and their domestic help were found dead with their throats slit in their south Delhi’s Vasant Enclave home. Police found the deceased had multiple injuries on their neck.

JUNE: In a robbery bid, an elderly woman was stabbed to death at her home in Dwarka’s Uttam Nagar by a man who fled with her

Deputy commissioner of police (north) Monika Bhardwaj said the man was detained for questioning during which he admitted to having killed the woman by strangulating her with a dupatta. Bhardwaj said that the victim and the suspect knew each other.

“He also admitted that he had raped her before killing her. He was booked under the Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape) and 302 (murder) and arrested,” the DCP said.

Police said the suspect told them that he often visited the woman’s shop when she was there.

“He said that around 1am on

jewelry and other valuables. AUGUST: A 92-year-old retired government employee was kidnapped by his domestic help from south Delhi's Greater Kailash II area. The help locked him in a refrigerator and carried it away in a tempo. Later he buried the man’s body in an abandoned plant in Sangam Vihar.

SEPTEMBER 2018: An elderly woman and her specially abled daughter were found dead at their Guru Hari Kishan Nagar residence near Paschim

Vihar. The woman lived with her daughter at their DDA colony apartment.

Saturday, he had gone to visit the woman and found her alone. He then raped her and when she threatened to raise the alarm, he strangled her to death and fled,” an officer said.

According to Delhi Police data, rape cases in the national capital had declined marginally— it fell from 2,199 in 2015 to 2,135 in 2018. However, in 2019 (till November 15), 1,947 cases have already been reported. This exceeds the figure of 1,921 reported during the same period (from January to November 15) in 2018.

Many women feel that Delhi is still unsafe for women, especially after dusk.

NEW DELHI: A lone slipper and CCTV footage of a limping man led police to crack the Gulabi Bagh case and arrest the alleged killer and rapist of a 55-year-old woman within hours of the crime.

One of the investigators said, during preliminary probe, investigators scanned CCTV footages from near the woman’s house to find clues and spotted one man leaving the house early on Saturday morning.

“The man spotted in the CCTV footage was limping. When we showed the clip to the neighbours and asked them if they knew about anyone who walked with a similar limp. No one had seen the man before,” the officer said requesting anonymity.

The police then expanded their probe and zeroed in on a few men, who were then called for questioning.

“During questioning we spotted the 22-year-old, who worked as a street vendor, who was not wearing his slippers. We also spotted that while walking, the man limped. We questioned him about his slippers, which he tried to evade. A jhuggi close by, where the suspect lived, was then searched and we recovered a slipper similar to the one found in the woman’s shop,” the officer said.

Deputy commissioner of police (north) Monika Bhardwaj said that the man was detained and during sustained questioning, he confessed.

“He also admitted sexually assaulting the woman before strangulating her to death,” the DCP said.

*Till November 15