Delhi: Man released from Tihar kills senior citizen during robbery, arrested

A 72-year-old building contractor was allegedly strangled to death at his house in South-West Delhi’s Sagarpur area during a robbery attempt by his neighbour, who was released from Tihar jail two months ago.

DCP (South-West) Ingit Pratap Singh said the incident took place on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday when the deceased, identified as Sunil Sehgal, had woken up to go to the washroom.

“The accused, identified as Sunny Rai (31), had broken into Sehgal’s house on Thursday night and was stealing his gold chain, ring and ATM card. After hearing a noise, Sunny went into Sehgal’s washroom. The latter tried to scream, but he was overpowered. Sunny strangled the old man to death and managed to escape from the spot,” Singh added.

The incident came to light when the deceased did not open his door and his neighbour informed his daughter, who stays in the Paschim Vihar area. “A police team reached the spot and found Sehgal lying in his washroom. Prima facie, it appeared to be a case of accidental death and the body was shifted to a hospital for an autopsy. A forensic team was called in to inspect the crime scene and police started scanning the CCTV cameras of the house and locality,” a senior police officer said.

The official added that from the footage of one of the cameras, they found a man entering Sehgal’s house. “Preliminary probe shows that the entry was not forced and he was also wearing a surgical mask, so we couldn’t identify him. Footage was shown to locals and after collecting information from the area, police identified Sunny, who stays just 300 meters away from the crime scene,” the officer added.

The DCP said a raid was conducted and the accused was arrested. “Sunny was earlier arrested in a case of robbery and then an NDPS case. On March 11, he was released from Tihar jail. 15 days before the incident, he had tried to enter Sehgal’s house, but failed. This time, however, he stole Sehgal’s gold chain and a ring and sold it to local shopkeeper, Bhanu Partap, at Rs 48,000. We have also arrested Bhanu Partap and recovered the gold chain and ring from him. Sunny had also found a note with Sehgal’s ATM pin and had withdrawn Rs 41,000, which, too, has been recovered,” Singh added.