East Delhi woman killed to grab property: Cops

Sudha Gupta was stabbed at least 50 times by three men using ice picks at the Mandawali railway under-bridge near Preet Vihar on Tuesday afternoon

Two days after a 72-year-old woman was stabbed to death on a busy east Delhi road in broad daylight, police officers on Thursday said that they had solved the case by arresting four people from Gurugram, and added that the woman was killed in an attempt to grab her property.

The spot where the 72-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Preet Vihar, in Delhi. (HT Photo)

Sudha Gupta was stabbed at least 50 times by three men using ice picks at the Mandawali railway under-bridge near Preet Vihar on Tuesday afternoon. Police said she owned at least four properties at key locations in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar and Mandawali, and lived on the rent collected from these buildings.

On Thursday, police officers associated with the case said that one of the arrested men, identified as Monu Dedda — a property dealer in Mandawali — thought of grabbing her properties after killing her, and included his three friends, identified as Pushpender Yadav alias Aaiya, Sarthak Nagar alias Laddu, and Vikas Chaudhary alias Lalla, in the conspiracy.

Monu, Pushpender, and Sarthak were involved in the act of murder, while Vikas helped them escape Delhi in his car, police said.

Giving details, a senior investigator associated with the case said that the assailants used ice picks as the murder weapons, after learning through the Internet that such weapons do not attract sections of the Arms Act.

“The three had purchased three ice picks from Mandawali market around a week before the murder. They had been trying to kill her for the past three days but could not get the right opportunity. They had conducted a detailed reconnaissance of Gupta’s route and the routes she took to travel between her residence in Laxmi Nagar and her other properties in Mandawali,” the investigator said.

“Unlike others killers, who take precautions such as covering their faces and choosing isolated places not covered by CCTVs to commit murders, the three stabbed Sudha on a busy road surrounded by shops. Their faces were visible to the public and were caught on CCTVs as well. The objective was also to make themselves infamous as dreaded killers so that nobody could ever oppose them in their property grabbing business,” the investigator said.

After murdering Sudha, police said, the three abandoned the motorcycle at Mangalam near Mother Dairy, got into Vikas’s Hyundai Santro, and drove to a village in Gurugram’s Bhondsi, and hid themselves in a room built near a tube well house. Vikas then drove back to Delhi.

Police said on the basis of technical surveillance, they conducted raids in Delhi and Gurugram, and arrested the four on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, adding that they have seized the car and the motorcycle used by the four.