Killer dragged victim down a floor to open biometric locker

The victim, an IIT graduate and UPSC aspirant, was allegedly raped and strangled with a mobile phone charger cable by suspect Rahul Meena

NEW DELHI: The 23-year-old former household employee who allegedly raped and murdered a 22-year-old woman in south Delhi’s Kailash Hills on Wednesday morning dragged the victim down from the fourth floor to the third floor in an unsuccessful attempt to unlock a fingerprint-access locker, investigators aware of the case details said on Thursday.

Meena told cops that the victim was studying when he barged into her room. (HT picture)

The victim, an IIT graduate and UPSC aspirant, was allegedly raped and strangled with a mobile phone charger cable by suspect Rahul Meena, who was arrested Wednesday evening.

Meena, who hails from Rajasthan’s Alwar where he was wanted for sexually assaulting another woman Tuesday night, had been employed in the household and gained entry after exploiting a narrow window when her parents stepped out in the morning to go to the gym.

According to a senior police officer, Meena entered the house at 6.39am using a smart key that the family kept outside the main door near a shoe rack, which the domestic helps – including Meena – knew about. He told investigators that after entering, he went to the victim’s room on the fourth floor.

HT graphic

Meena told cops that the victim was studying when he barged into her room. “He said that he straightaway demanded money to pay off debts, but she refused and asked him to leave. He argued, after which she started to call her father. Before she could, he first pressed her throat, then used a charger wire to strangle her, and then attacked her with a water bottle and a lamp on her head. She fell unconscious,” an officer said.

Meena then allegedly raped her “while she was still alive, but unconscious” and then dragged her down the staircase in an attempt to use her biometric details to open a fingerprint-protected safe. “He knew that the lock could only be opened using the fingerprints of the four family members. He then tried to use her finger to open the lock, but failed. Therefore, he broke it open using a heavy object,” a second officer said.

The accused took around ₹1.5-2 lakh in cash and jewellery worth around ₹10 lakh in a black backpack he found in the house and left. He told police he changed his bloodstained trousers and shoes.

The accused, according to investigators, had a debt of ₹7 lakh due to his online gaming and gambling addiction.

The postmortem examination has confirmed that the victim died due to strangulation following a violent assault, according to a senior official at AIIMS, where the victim’s autopsy was carried out. The body bore multiple external injuries, including abrasions and contusions on both arms, hands, and legs, along with multiple lacerations and abrasions on the face and a fracture of the nasal bone, the official, who asked not to be identified, said

Neck dissection revealed intramuscular haemorrhage in multiple muscles, and both horns of the thyroid cartilage were fractured. “The deceased died of strangulation following assault,” the official said. Multiple samples have been sent for forensic examination to ascertain whether sexual assault occurred.

During the probe, police found that the accused reached Delhi after an hours-long showdown in an Alwar village. “He had allegedly sexually assaulted his friend’s wife, and she raised an alarm. Several villagers gathered, and he ran atop a hill called ‘Kali Pahari’ and hid there for the next two and a half hours until the villagers left,” an officer said.

Once the coast was clear, he came down, stole a bicycle, and rode to a wedding which he allegedly gatecrashed “to have dinner” around 1 am. He then took a lift on a motorcycle, reached the highway toward Delhi, and waited near a petrol pump. He hired a van at around 2am and reached Kailash Hills around 5.30am, where he waited for the victim’s parents to leave before entering at 6.39am.

A police team reached Meena’s residence in Alwar by Wednesday afternoon, and questioning his family revealed he was close to his paternal uncle, who lives in Gurugram and works near the airport. “He had sometimes met his uncle at a few hotels in the Palam area. That’s why a team started looking at hotels in Palam as well,” a third officer said, adding that he had come to Delhi three years ago and initially worked as a labourer.

Another team traced Meena using technical surveillance, but he had already been picked up by the southeast district police. The accused spent around ₹7,000 of the stolen cash, and the rest has been recovered. Police said Meena was arrested from a hotel in Dwarka around 8pm on Wednesday.