Murderer faced stiff fight from old farmer in Delhi

The suspect, 26-year-old Naveen, attacked the farmer with a spade, a trowel and a brick before finally strangling him with a metallic wire, Gaurav Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (outer-north), said. All the four weapons have been recovered, the officer added.

Facing “stiff resistance” from a “well-built” 65-year-old farmer sleeping in his cattle shed in an outer Delhi village, a robber had to use four weapons to kill the victim, the police said on Tuesday after arresting the suspected killer.

The suspect was about to run away with the stolen money, but the farmer woke up and the two had a scuffle leading to farmer’s death. (HT Photo)

The suspect, 26-year-old Naveen, attacked the farmer with a spade, a trowel and a brick before finally strangling him with a metallic wire, Gaurav Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (outer-north), said. All the four weapons have been recovered, the officer added.

The farmer, Randheer Singh, lived in Tajpur village, under the jurisdiction of Alipur police station.

Apart from farming, he also reared buffaloes and would spend his nights in the cattle shed, an enclosed compound with low walls.

Singh was found murdered around 5.15 am on Sunday. The police found no signs of forced entry into the shed. Initially, robbery seemed an unlikely motive, since nothing appeared to be missing from the crime spot.

The DCP said “technical surveillance, local intelligence and CCTV surveillance footage” resulted in the suspect’s capture on Monday. Naveen turned out to be a resident of the same village. The man, who works as a labourer, also has a criminal past—an attempt-to-murder case and a robbery.

“Naveen would frequently borrow money from Singh. When he visited Singh’s cattle shed on Saturday, he noticed Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 cash with him. He planned to steal the money at night,” the DCP said.

In the early hours of Sunday, Naveen allegedly used a ladder to scale the wall of the cattle shed and stole the money. “But just as he was about to walk away with the money, Singh woke up,” the DCP said.

“Singh was a well-built man and put up a fight. Whatever Naveen found at the cattle shed, he used to attack Singh, finally killing him,” the DCP added. Naveen then opened the door of the cattle shed and walked out, the reason why the police found no signs of forced entry .

The police have recovered Rs 26,072 of the robbed cash from Naveen.