Greater Noida: Man kills 60-yr-old neighbour for her jewellery; held

Police scanned over 150 CCTV cameras and enquired from around 70 villagers to zero-in on the suspect in the case, said officers

Greater Noida: A 24-year-old man allegedly killed his 60-year-old neighbour woman for her gold earrings and nose ring in Greater Noida’s Badalpur on August 3, police said on Wednesday, adding that he was arrested on Tuesday night following a brief gunfight.

Police have recovered the woman’s gold ornaments and mobile phone from his possession. (Representational image)

Police scanned over 150 CCTV cameras and enquired from around 70 villagers to zero-in on the suspect in the case, said officers.

Police identified the deceased as Raj Bala, who lived alone in Chapraula village of Greater Noida’s Badalpur. She has a married daughter, who used to visit her once a month or two.

On August 3 afternoon, police received an emergency call on 112 at 2.00pm that the woman was found dead at her home, said officers. “A police team rushed to the spot and found that an elderly woman with two cut marks on her neck was lying dead on her bed. When investigated, it was informed that a local woman approached Bala to call her for a neighbourhood function. Later, on visiting her she found the door open. She informed locals who found her dead,” said an officer urging anonymity.

Police scanned CCTV cameras installed near the house. “In one of the CCTV cameras, an unidentified man was spotted moving near Bala’s house within a gap of around 15 minutes of the incident,” said Badalpur Station House Officer Amit Kumar Bhadana, adding that locals identified him as Pappu Mistri, saying he lived near Bala’s home, and was allegedly involved in petty crimes.

A probe found that Mistri had left the village two to three days after the incident.

On Tuesday night (August 19), Mistri was spotted near Roza Yakubpur in Badalpur during police checking. “When police tried to stop him, he fired at police using a country-made pistol and was arrested after suffering a bullet injury to his leg in retaliatory fire,” said deputy commissioner of police (Central Noida) Shakti Mohan Avasthy.

He purportedly revealed that on August 3 he had spotted Bala wearing gold earrings and a nose ring, and sitting outside her home. He approached her to have some water. “When Bala went inside to bring water, he followed her and strangulated her to death. As she fell unconscious, he put her on a bed and robbed her gold earrings, nose ring, and a phone. Fearing that she might be alive, he slashed her neck twice with a blade,” said SHO Bhadana.

Police have recovered Bala’s gold ornaments and mobile phone from his possession and a case under sections of murder, robbery, and house trespassing was registered against him at Badalpur police station on August 4 following a complaint from her grandson.