GURUGRAM: A 22-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly strangling a 75-year-old retired schoolteacher inside her house in New Colony on Sunday night, after she confronted him during what police suspect was a theft attempt.
The arrest was announced by Gurugram Police on Monday evening in an update on its official account, which said New Colony police station had arrested the accused, Suraj Gupta. Police said he is from Devdha village in Samastipur district of Bihar, lived in Madanpuri and worked at construction sites, making iron reinforcement frames for buildings.
The woman, Madhu Sharma, had retired as a teacher from a Delhi government school. She lived alone in her parental home in New Colony and had returned there only last week, according to her family, after staying with relatives in Faridabad for some days because the old house needed repairs. She had no children.
According to police, a neighbour noticed a man near her house at about 8.15 pm on Sunday. He was seen standing outside and looking around before slipping in. Soon after, the neighbour heard screams, called other residents and alerted police.
By the time the neighbours reached the house, the man had run out and hidden in the area behind it. They found Sharma lying near the door of a room. A police team, scene-of-crime and fingerprint experts and a forensic team reached the spot, and senior officers, including the Assistant Commissioner of Police (City) and crime branch teams, joined a search of the surrounding plots, houses and patches of thick vegetation.
Investigators allege that Gupta went in to steal and was confronted by Sharma. Police said that during questioning he claimed he demanded Rs 100 from her and strangled her when she refused and raised an alarm. A hammer that he is alleged to have carried was found near the body, police said.
Inspector Sanjeev Kumar, station house officer of New Colony police station, said the accused told investigators he had watched the house several times before that night and had noticed that it stayed dark on most evenings.
Case registered for murder
An FIR was registered at New Colony police station under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with murder and carries a punishment of death or life imprisonment. The autopsy, carried out by a board of two doctors after her relatives arrived, found strangulation to be the cause of death, police said.
Police said the accused is being questioned and every angle, including theft, is being examined before they settle on a motive. All of this is at the allegation stage. Gupta has not been tried, and his guilt will have to be proved before a court.
Under the new criminal procedure law, police generally have 90 days to file a chargesheet in cases punishable with death or life imprisonment. The timeline matters, because if the chargesheet is not filed within that period the accused can seek default bail. Forensic reports from the house will also matter, since a confession made to police is not by itself admissible as evidence in court.
New Colony is one of the older, crowded residential pockets of the city, with narrow lanes and houses built close together, and the case was cracked largely because neighbours acted quickly. The same police station had earlier handled a case of an attack by men in a Scorpio in New Colony in which four people were arrested.
The detail police have stressed, that the house stayed dark on most nights, is one that families of older people living alone in the city will recognise. Break-ins at locked or poorly lit houses have come up in several recent cases across Gurugram, including the Ardee City burglary case in which four men were held.
Sharma's last rites were performed on Monday after her body was handed over to her relatives. Residents who notice suspicious movement near a house where an elderly person lives alone can call the emergency number 112.
