91-year-old murdered, stuffed in refrigerator by domestic help in Delhi

Police initially believed that the elderly man was abducted and had begun their probe to find and rescue the man. Over the next 48 hours, the domestic help and three others were arrested, but their interrogators struggled to get them to reveal where and in what condition had they had kept Khosla.

On Sunday, police thought it was bizarre case of a 91-year-old man being abducted in a refrigerator, allegedly by his domestic help, from his home in south Delhi’s Greater Kailash-2. Over 48 hours later, the police were digging up a plot in Sangam Vihar in search of a body after their probe revealed that it was a case of murder.

A file photo of Krishna Khosla, who was killed at home and his body carried in a fridge (Sourced)

Police said the help first drugged the man, Krishna Khosla, and his 87-year-old wife Saroj on Saturday evening (August 31) at their home, before going out and returning with five to six other men and strangling Khosla to death. Saroj was, however, not bodily injured, police said.

Unravelling a complicated case that had kept them on their toes, police said the motive for the crime remains unclear even though cash, jewellery and other valuables are missing from the house.

Police initially believed that the elderly man was abducted and had begun their probe to find and rescue the man. Over the next 48 hours, the domestic help and three others were arrested, but their interrogators struggled to get them to reveal where and in what condition had they had kept Khosla.

By late evening on Monday, the suspects revealed that they had buried Khosla’s body in Sangam Vihar, said Devesh Srivastava, joint commissioner of police (southern range). “We have sent teams there to recover the body,” Srivastava said, adding that the refrigerator and the good carrier in which the fridge was taken away were recovered from different parts of Sangam Vihar.

The officer said the suspects revealed that they killed Khosla at his home before stuffing his body in a double-door refrigerator and moving it to Sangam Vihar.

Motive not clear

An interrogator quoted the domestic help as saying that he killed the man for “ill-treating him”, but JCP Srivastava said the claim was not being taken at its face value. “The killers also took away cash, jewellery and other valuables. For now, we are seeing it as a crime committed for financial gain, but we can’t comment on the motive at this stage,” Srivastava said.

The family of the murdered man refused to interact with the media.

Parvinder Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (south), said Khosla was a retired Delhi government employee who had served in the United Nations missions in Libya and Iraq. He lived with Saroj in a rented three-bedroom flat on the first floor of a building in M-Block of Greater Kailash - 2.

The couple had moved into the flat earlier this year as their own house in S Block of Greater Kailash -1 was being renovated. One of their sons is settled in Australia while the other lives with his family in a separate house in Greater Kailash locality and runs a business of LED bulbs, ADCP Singh said.

Domestic Help Was Verified

The officer said that over a year ago, the couple hired a full-time help, Kishan. A native of Bihar, Kishan’s family lives in Sangam Vihar. The officer said the police verification of the help had also been done by the couple because of which the investigators had much of his details while probing the crime.

JCP Srivastava said Kishan had offered tea laced with sedatives to the couple around 5pm on Saturday before leaving home and returning with five to six other men. They arrived around 7pm in a goods carrier vehicle, the driver of which has told the police that he wasn’t aware of the crime.According to police, while the couple remained sedated, the gang allegedly cleared the double-door refrigerator of all its contents. They also collected cash, jewellery and other valuables from around the house. Around 8pm, the police said, the men brought down the refrigerator and loaded it on their goods carrier and drove away.

Seen by security guard

Shamim, the building’s security guard, said he noticed the men bring down the refrigerator, but did not give it much thought. “I thought it was an old refrigerator that was either being discarded or being taken for repair,” Shamim said. He said he did not see the men bring Khosla with them.

The crime came to fore around 7am on Sunday when Saroj regained consciousness. “She could not find her husband or the domestic help in the house. She found the refrigerator missing and the house ransacked and realised that something was wrong and raised the alarm, after which her house owner came to check,” ADCP Singh said.

The couple’s son was soon informed after which the police were alerted. Police said Saroj remains in shock and is still recovering from the sedatives, but otherwise safe.

A CCTV camera, installed in the stilt parking of the building, was not working. Shyam Kalra, a neighbour, said several CCTV cameras installed around the house too were not working. “We are used to frequent thefts in our neighbourhood, but such an event is unusual,” Kalra said.

By Monday afternoon, the police found CCTV images of the suspects driving away in a white open goods carrier along with the refrigerator. Two of the suspects were seen sitting on the refrigerator. The domestic help was later arrested from Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh, JCP Srivastava said, adding that the vehicle’s registration number helped nab three more suspects.