75-year-old retired Delhi school teacher killed during burglary bid in Gurugram, suspect held

Police said Gupta, whom they described as a habitual substance user, allegedly told investigators during questioning that he had surveyed Sharma’s house several times and noticed that it remained dark on most nights

A 75-year-old retired Delhi government teacher was allegedly strangled to death at her home in New Colony, Sector 7, on Sunday night after she raised an alarm on finding an intruder inside, police said on Monday. The 22-year-old suspect was arrested after a three-hour search, during which he was found hiding in a tree behind an adjoining house.

The victim, Madhu Sharma, a native of Alipur in Punjab, had lived alone for about two decades in a dilapidated single-storey house built on a 250-square-yard plot. Police said the house had no functioning electricity or water connection. Parts of the roof had collapsed, and vegetation had spread across the property. (HT Photo)

The victim, Madhu Sharma, a native of Alipur in Punjab, had lived alone for about two decades in a dilapidated single-storey house built on a 250-square-yard plot belonging to her parents. She had been living separately from her husband, who stayed in Meerut and died in 2010. The couple had no children.

Police identified the suspect as Suraj Gupta, 22, a native of Devdha in Bihar’s Samastipur who lived in Madanpuri and worked at construction sites in Gurugram.

Police said Gupta, whom they described as a habitual substance user, allegedly told investigators during questioning that he had surveyed Sharma’s house several times and noticed that it remained dark on most nights.

A senior police officer said Gupta allegedly scaled the boundary wall on Sunday night intending to steal cash and valuables.

“He searched the house but found little apart from dust, debris and old clothes,” the officer said.

Police said Gupta encountered Sharma inside the house and allegedly threatened her with a hammer. During questioning, he allegedly told investigators that after failing to find valuables, he demanded ₹100 from her.

“When she raised an alarm, he strangled her,” the officer said. The hammer allegedly carried by Gupta was later recovered from beside the body.

Dr Deepak Mathur, in-charge of the forensic wing at Gurugram civil hospital, said strangulation marks were found on Sharma’s neck.

Police said neighbour Ikshit Nagpal, who lives opposite Sharma’s house, saw Gupta enter the premises around 9.10pm while standing on his second-floor balcony but initially did not find anything suspicious.

Around two minutes later, Nagpal heard Sharma scream and alerted neighbours Ankur and Yash, who live in an adjoining building, while also calling the police control room.

Several residents gathered outside the house, blocking the suspect’s escape route, investigators said.

Yash said Gupta scaled a wall and climbed on to terrace of Sharma’s house.

“He went towards the rear, which was full of vegetation and trees, and disappeared from view. But he could not escape because there were four-storey houses all around,” he said.

An emergency response vehicle reached the spot and found Sharma lying dead near a door inside the house, residents and police said.

ACP (city) Suresh Kumar, other senior officers and multiple crime branch teams subsequently launched a search of adjoining houses, plots and areas covered by dense vegetation. Police also made announcements asking the suspect to surrender, but received no response.

Inspector Sanjeev Kumar, station house officer of New Colony police station, said Gupta was found after around three hours hiding in a tree behind an adjoining locked house, where he had managed to escape from a narrow gap from the terrace of Sharma’s house..

“He had climbed around 25 to 30 feet above the ground,” Kumar said.

Sharma’s living conditions also surprised investigators and residents.

Police said the house had no functioning electricity or water connection. Parts of the roof had collapsed, while an old television and refrigerator lay damaged under debris and vegetation had spread across the property.

An officer said Sharma had given her mobile phone to a neighbour for charging before the incident because there was no electricity supply at her house.

Kumar said Sharma had visited the police station around 20 days earlier with several complaints, including a lack of power supply, following which police helped get the electricity supply temporarily restored by paying ₹200 to an electrician.

“However, the supply was disrupted again. The house remained dark on most nights. The suspect targeted it believing that probably nobody lived there,” he said.

Police said Sharma received a regular pension from the Delhi government and investigators recovered a bank passbook showing a balance of around ₹8 lakh.

Residents said the plot on which the house stands is worth around ₹6.5 crore at current market rates.

Despite this, Sharma had continued to live in the deteriorating ancestral house, they said.

One neighbour said she could not recall seeing family members visit Sharma in recent years. “She lived all alone and was friendly,” she said.

Police said they initially struggled to trace Sharma’s relatives and registered an FIR against Gupta on Nagpal’s complaint under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at New Colony police station.

After several hours, police traced her nephew Harsh Alipuria, a Sector 82 resident. Sharma was one of six siblings — four brothers and two sisters — of whom only one sister, who lives in the US, is still alive, police said.

Alipuria, who received Sharma’s body after the autopsy, said he had last visited her house four years ago to invite her to his wedding but met her again at a cousin’s home in Faridabad on Raksha Bandhan this year.

He said Sharma had several times asked relatives to help arrange rented accommodation or have the property redeveloped.

“Every time, however, she rejected the offers and refused to leave her parental home when the time came to shift,” he said.