Auto-driver, aide arrested for robbing, killing 72-year-old woman last year

The two suspects are 22-year-old Mazid, an auto-rickshaw driver and his friend Govind Pal (19). Police said Pal, who is from Kannauj, had gifted the phone to a relative in Rajasthan.

Delhi Police have arrested an auto rickshaw driver and his aide for allegedly robbing and killing a 72-year-old woman whose body was found in south east Delhi’s Sarita Vihar in November last year. Police said the two men were caught as one of them, instead of throwing the woman’s mobile phone, gifted it to one of his relatives in Rajasthan.

Delhi Police have arrested an auto rickshaw driver and his aide for allegedly robbing and killing a 72-year-old woman whose body was found in south east Delhi’s Sarita Vihar in November last year.

The two suspects are 22-year-old Mazid, an auto-rickshaw driver and his friend Govind Pal (19). Police said Pal, who is from Kannauj, had gifted the phone to a relative in Rajasthan.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said on November 10, 2018, the body of an elderly woman was found in the bushes near the Sarita Vihar flyover.

“Two days later, the woman’s brother approached the police and identified her as his sister Roop Lata, a resident of Taimoor Nagar in southeast Delhi. He said the woman was unmarried and lived alone. He said on November 9, she had visited him in Mahipalpur but after she left, he could not contact her and lodged a missing report at Vasant Kunj South police station,” the DCP said.

Biswal said the complainant further stated the woman was wearing a gold chain, earrings, bangles and a ring and was carrying a hand bag. “All the jewellery and the bag were missing when the body was found. This suggested the woman was possibly robbed and killed. We registered a case and initiated probe,” the officer said.

Police said they looked at several CCTV footages and scanned the woman’s phone call records. “Following months of surveillance, our team got information that the woman’s phone was being used in Ganganagar, Rajasthan. The identified location was raided and we managed to recover the robbed phone. Further enquiry led us to Govind Pal and later to his aide Mazid. Both were arrested on Thursday from Pul Prahladpur area,” the DCP said.

During interrogation Mazid allegedly disclosed that on the day of incident, the woman had boarded his auto from Vayusenabad Bus Stand at MB Road to her house in Taimoor Nagar, the DCP said.

“He said he spotted the woman wearing a lot of jewellery and took a detour on the pretext of avoiding traffic, despite her resistance. He said he stopped the auto at a deserted stretch in Sarita Vihar and strangled the woman. He said after taking all her jewelry and valuables, he threw her in a nearby bush and drove away. He later confessed of the murder to his friend Pal and who took the woman’s phone from Mazid on the pretext of disposing it but instead gifted it to his relative in Ganganagar,” Biswal said.