Heinous home invasion: Months of prep, one lapse On Thursday morning, Delhi Police said they solved the murders of two women inside a house in Jangpura Extension, and recovered around ₹90 lakh that five men had robbed in the early hours of Monday.

On Thursday morning, Delhi Police said they solved the murders of two women inside a house in Jangpura Extension, and recovered around ₹90 lakh that five men had robbed in the early hours of Monday.(AFP)

Prawesh Lama, HT, New Delhi, Nov 19, 2021 : The men have no history of crime, so there was a no match between their fingerprints and the Delhi Police’s database; they had no connection with the family they robbed; they were captured on multiple CCTV cameras near the spot but had their faces were covered (and security guard did not find this unusual in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic); they took a room on rent close to the house they were targeting; and used code names to speak to each other on the phone for well over the month.

With these precautions, the five men thought they pulled off a heinous but perfect murder and robbery. But for one small mistake.

On Thursday morning, Delhi Police said they solved the murders of two women inside a house in Jangpura Extension, and recovered around ₹90 lakh that five men had robbed in the early hours of Monday.

The two women, originally from Darjeeling, were working in the house for the last 5-6 months. Mina Rai (35), was a domestic help, and Sujata Gurung, 40, a nursing attendant. Police said the women were murdered because they spotted the five men during the robbery.

The incident

At 9.10am on Monday, the police control room received information that two women were found dead inside a house in south Delhi’s Jangpura Extension. When a police team reached the house, they saw one of them lying dead on the ground floor with her mouth taped and limbs tied, and the second on the first floor with her face in the ground.

The two bodies were first spotted by their employer, Rita Kapoor, when a local dog trainer rang the doorbell and got no response. The man then called Kapoor, after which she went to check on the two women.

The police team took photographs and collected fingerprints from the spot. As part of the investigation, police match fingerprints with all available prints in their database. When the crime is committed by habitual criminals who have been arrested in the past, the prints match, and the cases are solved easily. In this case, however, the sleuths had no such luck.

The five men were seen by at least 10 CCTV cameras around the colony, but they were masked, and could not be identified. The colony security guard had told police that saw five men -- their faces masked -- carrying large backpacks, but did not find anything suspicious as this is now normal practice because of Covid guidelines.

Monday was also a day when three other women were found murdered across the city, and a parliamentarian, Raju Bista (Lok Sabha MP from Darjeeling) wrote to Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana about the need to solve this case quickly because thousands of migrant women like Mina and Sujata, who come from the hills to the country’s national capital to earn a living, were worried by the murders.

The only mistake

Around the same time as the murders, investigators also found CCTV footage of two men on a black Hero Splendor motorcycle near the colony at around the same time as the murders. No resident could identify the two people, or the bike.

An investigating officer, who asked not to be named, said: “It was impossible for us to identify the riders of this bike because it was dark. But we figured that the bikers were connected to our case. The CCTV cameras at the gate showed only the three masked suspects leaving the colony on foot. One of the police teams was given the task of identifying these bikers by checking old CCTV camera footage. Our team spotted the same bike outside the crime spot several times on Friday and Saturday. They had been conducting a recce during the day time. This was their mistake. The number plate was clearly visible during the day.”

Esha Pandey, deputy commissioner of police(south east) said police had identified the registration number UP 25 DF 6754 and traced the motorcycle to its owner, Sachit Saxena, who works in the marketing department of a private insurance firm.

“We arrested Saxena on the basis of technical evidence. Saxena then led us to his accomplices, Prashant Basista, Sachit Saxena, Aniket Jha, Ramesh and Dhananjay Gulia.”

Police said Saxena and Basista were planning the robbery for almost a year.

“ A woman, who worked at the Jangpura house until two years ago, had told her nephew (Saxena) about large sums of cash that the family kept at home. Saxena worked in the same insurance company as Basista. The two were trying to find three other men for several months to execute this robbery. About two months ago, Basista found three men who agreed to part of the crime,” an investigating officer said.

Investigating officers, said the five men hoped they would find about ₹10-20 lakhs inside the house. The two main conspirators Saxena and Basista, had planned to quit their jobs as marketing agents and start a business with the money they would make from the robbery.

While police said they recovered ₹90 lakh (including forex) that the five men had robbed, Kapoor’s husband, Iftar Mulk Chisti said the figure quoted by the police is exaggerated. He said he is still checking what items are missing. “Police has asked me to provide details of the missing items. I am in touch with them,” he said.

In records of the colony’s directory, Chisti is listed as an architect. DCP Pandey said Iftar and his wife are elderly citizens who were unable to figure out what was stolen from the house. “This is why the robbery was not reported on the day of the incident,” she said.

Month of planning

Sometime in the first week of October, the five men took two rooms on rent in Amar Colony, less than 5km from the house. Police said this was the place where the five men detailed every part of the plan. The five took photographs of the Jangpura house when they could; discussed how many people were present inside at different times of the day, among other details.

DCP Pandey in her press statement said that the five men used only voice over internet protocol (VOIP) to speak to each other. This was their way of ensuring that even if one person was arrested, police could not trace the others.

“They even had number code names – 1,2,3,4 and 5. They held meetings at the room in Amar Colony to be mentally prepared to murder the family, or other people in the house, if there was resistance. Saxena and Basista would regularly check visit the K block on their Black Splendour,” a second investigating officer said.

Police said the five men also researched different ways to rob or murder by watching crime shows on the internet. About a week ago, they agreed to use chloroform to immobilise the victims. They bought the chloroform, duct tape, ropes, masks, hoodies, and cutters from different shops across the city to avoid suspicion. Inside the rented room that served as their hideout, they wore the hoodies and the mask, and then took photographs on their cell phones to check if they could be recognised on camera.

“We are now probing the place from where they bought the chloroform. This will be a part of case evidence,” the second investigating officer said.

Executing the plan

At around 10pm on Sunday, hours before the murder, the five came to K block, Jangpur Extension. Saxena and Basista came on their motorcycle, parked it about 1km away from the house, while the other three took an auto rickshaw. The five men then took different routes to meet at the neighbourhood park where they hid behind the bushes. None of them carried their phones.

DCP Pandey said the five men waited for over three hours before making the move at around 1.30am.

A third officer, who questioned the five men, said, “They easily scaled the front wall of the house. They were sure that everyone inside was asleep. They had luck on their side. A door at the back of the house was open. There is an elevator in the building, which does not stop on the first and the second floor. They had information that the money was on the first or second floor.”

Police said this was the part of the plan that the five had not rehearsed. Unsure of how the elevator worked, or on which floor it would take them, the five were confused and started talking among themselves. Police said the elevator does not stop on the first and the second floor and goes directly to the third floor. Also, during the commotion, they unknowingly woke up domestic help Mina. The five told police on Thursday evening that Mina had tried to raise an alarm so they overpowered her, tied her limbs with a plastic rope, taped her mouth, and used chloroform. Police said she was smothered to death. The five men then proceeded to the first floor, where they found Sujata had woken up after hearing the noises below. They pushed her on the floor, used the chloroform, and smothered her with a pillow.

Investigating officers said that the family’s three pet dogs – on the second floor – did not hear what was happening on the ground and the first floors.

“Luck was on their side here too. They could not go to the second floor, where they believed the money was hidden. The elevator directly took them to the third floor where the family’s eldest – a woman in her 80s was sleeping. They searched the elderly woman’s almirah and found about ₹90 lakh in cash. Fortunately for her, the elderly woman did not wake up. Even if she had, she could not have raised an alarm as she is suffering from paralysis,” the third officer said.

On the second floor, the elderly woman’s son Iftar Mulk and his wife, Rita were sleeping. Their daughter was in Gujarat on the day of the murder.

Police officials said that they learnt about the large sum of stolen money only after the arrest of the five men, and are likely to probe why there was so much cash in the house.

Realising that they had unknowingly entered the right floor, and got what they wanted, the five men put the money in their bags, took the elevator down, and left the house. They took the hard disk of the CCTV camera inside the house to destroy evidence.

Aniket Jha, Ramesh and Dhananjay Gulia walked their way of out of the colony. Saxena and Sasista walked a distance, and then rode the black motorcycle back to their hideout.

It was during this final bike ride that a CCTV captured the two suspects, which was what led to their arrest.

(Courtesy & source: Hindustan Times