Man strangled to death; 5 held

Five robbers strangled a 38-year-old man to death and took away jewellery and mobile phones from his house in South Delhi’s DLF Chattarpur Farms after sedating other members of his family.

The fivesome, however, were caught by alert security guards a few hundred metres from the house and handed over to the police.

Police identified the deceased as Rohan Gupta who was working with a Noida-based export company dealing in brass metal polish. He was divorced a few months back and had been living with his parents. His wife and two children live in Gurgaon.

Police suspect that another member of the group could be absconding and are questioning the arrested men about his identity and location. Jewellery worth lakhs of rupees and a stolen mobile phone were recovered from them.

On Wednesday midnight, Gupta came home from work and after dinner went to the first floor to retire. His parents and two servants were sleeping in the ground floor, sources said.

Around 1 am, the dacoits entered the two-storey farmhouse by climbing a nearby wall and sedated the guard at the gate of the farmhouse using chloroform. On reaching the house, they sedated Gupta’s parents, too, said police. 

“They robbed the elderly duo of cash and jewellery. Then three robbers went to the first floor where they confronted Gupta,” the police added.

Not expecting anyone to be awake in the first floor, the men first tried to sedate Gupta, but when he resisted their attempt, one of them strangled him till he died, said police.

Lights on

After killing Gupta and looting the house, the dacoits left in batches. Around 1.45 am, a driver of a neighbouring farmhouse noticed the lights of Gupta’s house were still on.

“He also saw two men coming out of Gupta’s house in a suspicious manner. When the driver asked them about the reason of their presence, the duo didn’t give a convincing answer and ran away,” said Neeraj, driver of Gupta’s parents.

The suspicious driver went near the gate of Gupta’s farmhouse and saw the guard lying unconscious on the ground. He got convinced that some people were inside the house robbing it. He informed the matter to his owner who called up police and told them about the incident,” said R P Upadhyaya, Joint Commissioner of Police (South East).

Minutes later, police arrived and nabbed the five men who were trying to exit the colony through the main gate.

“In the main gate, the security guards of the DLF farmhouse stopped the five men from going out and handed them over to the police,” said Sandeep, Assistant Security Manager, Chattarpur Farms Welfare Society.

The five accused have been identified as Ajay, Vipin, Vinod, Shivnath and Vinod Kumar. Police are questioning the two servants sleeping in their servant quarters just outside the house, said sources.

Recce of the farmhouse

Sources said although the dacoits had done a recce of the farmhouse, on Thursday night after the incident, they assumed they had come out of the colony when they were still inside it.

“They were caught by us as they themselves walked in near the main gate thinking they had crossed the limits of the colony when actually they were within the main gates,” said Sandeep. A case of murder and dacoity has been registered.