Chattarpur murder: Did former driver, cook tip off robbers?

A day after five men broke into a bungalow in south Delhi’s posh DLF Farms, drugged the guard and strangled a 38-year-old man as they ransacked the house, investigators zeroed in on down on three suspects who initiated the plan and passed on information to the five men.

A day after five men broke into a bungalow in south Delhi’s posh DLF Farms, drugged the guard and strangled a 38-year-old man as they ransacked the house, investigators zeroed in on down on three suspects who initiated the plan and passed on information to the five men.

Five men broke into a bungalow in south Delhi’s posh DLF Farms, drugged the guard and strangled a 38-year-old man as they ransacked the house. (Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times)

Ajay Kumar (18), Vipin Kumar (22), Shivnath Sahni (20), Shyambabu (29) and Vinod Sahni (38) said in their interrogation that they came from Muzzafarpur on “specific input”.

Sources said they identified three people, including a former driver and cook, who could have passed on information to the five men. Sources said the former driver, who worked with the family for over three years, was the mastermind. Senior police officers refused to divulge more details.

The alleged robbers, before entering the house, had a full blueprint of DLF farms area and a count of the number of exit and entry gates to the house. They were aware of the spot where the guard is posted and also the way to the kitchen from where they broke into the house, sources said.

“The men were aware of the number of rooms inside the bungalow and the spots where they will find the cash and other valuables. The men said they had been planning the robbery for the past few weeks,” said a police officer.

He said the men had gone to the area for a recce in pairs. “They had come on three different scooters at different hours to observe the movement of the guards and to check the entry-exit points of the colony,” the officer said.

The police sent teams to Muzzafarpur and UP to nab the masterminds of the case. “We have received some information on the men who planned the robbery and we have sent our teams to nab them. The entire sequence of events on how the robbery was planned will be clear once the arrests are made,” a senior police officer said.

The five men, armed with knives, a pistol and cutters allegedly barged into the bungalow, made the security guard and an elderly couple unconscious by putting a chloroform-drenched handkerchief to their nose, and strangled their 38-year-old-son Rohan Gupta to death, when he tried to resist the bid on Thursday.