Probe into theft case at Panchsheel Park leads police to murder

Senior officers said the driver allegedly strangulated the woman to death as the two were in a relationship and she was pestering him to get married

An investigation into a case of theft at a residence in Panchsheel Park led the police to crack the murder of a 50-year-old woman employed as a domestic help at the house, who was killed allegedly by their driver, stuffed into a gunny bag and thrown into a drain in Noida on September 26, senior police officers said on Wednesday, after arresting the suspect.

Police said they are looking for the two absconding accomplices. (File Photo)

Senior officers said the driver allegedly strangulated the woman to death as the two were in a relationship and she was pestering him to get married, but he wasn’t ready as he was already married and didn’t want to leave his family.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Ankit Chauhan identified the suspect as Jitender Shukla, 50, a resident of Khanpur village, who hails from Himachal Pradesh. The victim woman hailed from Jharkhand and lived with the family at their Panchsheel home since 1991.

On September 26, DCP Chauhan said, a case of theft was registered on a complaint by the niece of the house owner. “The niece reported that the domestic help fled the house with ₹43,000 cash and her mobile number was found to be switched off,” he said.

According to the FIR, the house belonged to her 95-year-old aunt and she was living there with her since August this year. She said that when she returned from work around 5pm, she found all cupboards ransacked and ₹43,000 missing. The help’s lunch was on a plate on the table, she told police.

She said she called the help’s relative in Delhi who also had no idea about her whereabouts either.

The niece told police that their driver Shukla, who was hired two years ago, usually takes her aunt to the senior citizen’s club three days a week around 10am and brings her back around 5.30pm. On September 26, he drove her to the club and brought her back as usual.

But when police scanned CCTV footage from outside the house, they saw that Shukla, who usually stayed at the club all day, returned home around 1.30pm on September 26.

The CCTV footage from other cameras, when mapped, also showed presence of two more people and police started suspecting the involvement of Shukla.

Police said Shukla also worked at a second house and when that employer was questioned, he told police that Shukla hadn’t come to work from September 27 onwards. “His mobile phone was off and it was found that he had shifted from the address available with the two employers. With the help of technical surveillance on his wife’s phone, it was found that Shukla was living within 500 metres of his pervious address,” a second investigator said.

On September 30, teams traced Shukla and brought him to the police station.

He initially tried to mislead police but on sustained questioning, he admitted to the crime. “Shukla said he returned to the house on September 26, strangulated the help to death using a wire. Then, with the help of two friends, he stuffed the body in a gunny bag and used the house owner’s car to take it to a drain in Noida Sector 93 and dumped it there,” the second officer said.

He returned around 5pm and went to the club to fetch the aunt as if nothing had happened, the officer said.

Police said they are looking for the two absconding accomplices.

Shukla told police that he was in an extramarital relationship with the domestic help but she wanted them to get married. He pacified her saying that he would tie the knot with her after his daughter’s wedding. “His daughter recently got married and the help started pestering him again for marriage. He wanted to get rid of her as he did not want to leave his family and marry her,” the officer said.

The accused told police about where he disposed the body and on his instance, the body was recovered from the drain and handed over to Noida police for a postmortem examination on September 30.