Ex-help, her husband held for murder in Amar Colony

NEW DELHI: Two days after a 75-year-old woman was robbed and killed in her south Delhi house, police solved the case on Thursday by arresting the victim’s former house help and her husband, officers aware of the matter said.

Kulwant Kaur Sethi, who lived on the first floor of a two-storey building in Amar Colony, was found dead in a pool of blood on Tuesday with all her jewellery missing.

On Thursday, police said Sethi was killed by her former house help, Rani (single name), and Rani’s husband Yogesh Kumar Arora. Apart from some of the stolen jewellery, police also recovered a pistol with two cartridges and 83 bottles of foreign alcohol.

According to an investigator familiar with the case, Rani visited Sethi on Sunday to inform her about her wedding. On finding that Sethi was living alone after her husband’s death, Rani and Arora hatched a plan to kill the elderly woman and steal her cash and valuables, the officer said.

“Rani visited the house again on Tuesday at around 4 pm with her husband, but this time to execute their plan,” the investigator said on condition of anonymity, adding that she and Arora strangled Sethi with her dupatta, removed all the jewellery on her person, before tearing off her earrings.

“The couple wanted to ransack the entire house for cash and other valuables. But they got cold feet after seeing the woman dead and bleeding on the floor. They fled with whatever jewellery they found on her body,” the officer said.

Soon after they fled, at around 5pm, Sethi’s current house help, Sameena Parveen, discovered the body and raised an alarm.

A police team from the Amar Colony police station arrived and Sethi was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

A case of murder was registered and several teams, including the special staff of southeast district police, were tasked with solving the case. Since Sethi’s assailants had gained a friendly entry into the house, investigators suspected the role of someone known to her.

During an investigation into the case, Sethi’s daughter revealed that Rani had visited her mother, said special commissioner of police (law and order) Sagar Preet Hooda.

“Scanning of CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood also confirmed that Rani had come to the area on two days – first on November 6 and them on November 8 with her husband.