'Gang took different route to avoid CCTV cameras'

The murder of a home-alone woman in Rajarajeshwari Nagar last week was one of the many plotted by the four-member gang of suspects, police have said.

Krishna Kishore, 30, the prime suspect, was well-known in BEML Layout as he met many people offering to repair their computers. Police suspect that he looked for vulnerable home-alone elderly women in the guise of seeking work.

He, along with another accomplice Gururaj, 31, will visit the women and ask if they needed computer repair. If they gave them work, Gururaj would get busy repairing the computer while Kishore would stealthily scout around the house for cupboards and lockers. The duo also looked for CCTV cameras in and around the house. If they found any camera, they would drop their plan.

A few months ago, Kishore and Guru had visited the house of an elderly woman near the Sony World junction in Koramangala. They went to repair her computer and found some CCTV cameras installed by neighbouring houses that covered the entire stretch. They just dropped the plan, a senior police officer said.

During the investigation of Lakshmi Rajam’s murder, police questioned 60-70 people living in and around BEML Layout. A neighbour told the police that since Lakshmi lived alone, she never opened the door for strangers. She would open the door only after confirming that the visitor was familiar, the officer said.

Some people told the police they had seen Kishore entering Lakshmi’s house on May 31. Based on this information, Kishore was picked up and he confessed, the officer said.

“In case of Rajam, they conducted a recce on May 27 and found there was no CCTV camera anywhere near her house. But a little further ahead, there was a camera installed outside a bank. On May 31, to reach her house they avoided the road where the bank was located and took a different route,” the officer said. Police suspect the gang had plotted similar crimes in other places.

Ajay Hilori, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), urged elderly and home-alone people to inform the local police station so that policemen could watch them regularly. He said that installing CCTV cameras would also prove a deterrent.
DH News Service