Robbers kill businessman’s wife, servant in Jalandhar

Robbers murdered a businessman’s wife and servant at Model Town here on Tuesday evening.

Robbers murdered a businessman’s wife and servant at Model Town here on Tuesday evening.

Aggrieved family members of deceased Sujata Handa at their residence in Jalandhar on Tuesday.(Pardeep Pandit/HT Photo)

After killing Sujata Handa (50) and domestic help Harish Kumar (40), the intruders carried away the safe but abandoned it when they failed to crack it. Sujata’s son, Jatin, found it in the front seat of a car when he came home. Eyewitnesses Nikku and Rinku, who were out on the street, claim to have seen three men barge into the house.

The trespassers locked the gate from inside, entered Sujata’s bedroom, and injured her seriously in an attack. The eyewitness claim to have heard her screams. They were about to call her son when he came in. They gave him the situation. Jatin knocked at the door many times but received no response.

The eyewitnesses and he scaled a wall to get into the house and found his mother in a pool of blood. “We were moving her to hospital when he heard a noise from the first-floor storeroom,” said Nikku. “We ignored it and took her to PIMS (Punjab Institute of Medical Studies) in a neighbour’s car. Doctors referred her to Patel Hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead.”

The robbers were probably inside the house when Jatin moved his mother to hospital. His neighbours found Harish’s body inside her bedroom. He had injury marks and signs of strangulation on the neck, with a piece of cloth around it.

The neighbours saw no one exit the house. “Maybe the robbers got away from the roof,” a neighbour said. Harish was with the family for 20 years.

A security camera captured two intruders on a black Honda Aviator scooter, talking on the mobile phone and pacing the street at 5.04pm. Police found blood-stained hockey sticks at the house. “We are recording the statements of the eyewitnesses,” police commissioner Arpit Shukla said after inspecting the scene of crime.

Sujata’s husband, Prithvi Pal Handa, has a dairy business. On May 28, a fire destroyed his clothing showroom at Model Town.