Woman, her minor son arrested for killing elderly couple in Delhi

A part-time maid and her minor son were arrested for killing an elderly couple and robbing about Rs 9 lakh cash and gold jewellery in southeast Delhi's Amar Colony, police said on Monday. According to the Police, the duo had conspired to kill and rob the couple in order to earn quick money.

On January 26, the Delhi Police were informed about Virender Kumar Khaneja (77) and his wife Sarla (72) going missing. A police team then reached the couple's house at Mount Kailash where they found the flat locked from inside. The couple's phones were switched off, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal had said.

At the instance of relatives and neighbours, police broke the lock of the flat only to find decomposed bodies of the couple lying on the floor. The couple's son Dr. Amit Khaneja lives in the US and the couple had very less social interaction, the DCP said.

During the investigation, the police quizzed the domestic help - who used to work on a part-time basis and visited the house of the elderly couple once or twice a week to give massage to Sarla Khaneja. The woman denied having any role in the incident and tried to mislead the officials with contradictory statements, the police said. However, while examining the CCTV cameras, a young male was seen in one of the footage, the cop added.

On enquiry, police learned that the youth was the son of the accused maid. However, on seeing the footage, she denied the person seen in the footage as her son, the DCP said. On Monday, he was apprehended and interrogated. The accused mother-and-son duo gave contradictory statements. Later, the accused duo confessed about their involvement in the killing, he said.

A few days ago, the accused woman saw Virender Khaneja keeping some cash in the locker of the house. On January 18, at about 11 am, she went to give to the elderly woman and on seeing the opportunity she opened the door to let her son enter the flat, Biswal said. After finishing her job, she left the house but her son secretly remained inside the house. At around 2:30 pm, when Virender Khaneja left the house, the son of the accused, asked the elderly woman for cash and jewellery but she told him that her husband knows about the cash and jewellery, he said.

Following this, he strangulated the elderly woman and robbed jewellery from the house. He then waited for Virender Khaneja to return, Biswal said. Around 8:30 pm, when Khaneja returned home and rang the doorbell, no one opened the door. However, he managed to open the door with his own spare key.

On entering the house, the juvenile overpowered Khaneja and forcefully snatched key of the drawer from him and strangulated him. He later robbed the cash from the house, the officer said. On the instance of an accused duo, Rs 9 lakh cash, gold jewellery, and other articles were recovered, police said.

With PTI Inputs