Out of work, AC repairer kills, robs wife’s grandmother in Gujarat

SURAT: An air-conditioner repairer from Mumbai was arrested on Monday by Valsad police for murdering his grandmother-in-law and robbing cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 4.3 lakh.
Police said that the accused Mohammed Anees Khan was out of work and had run into losses due to which he hatched a plan to kill his grandmother-in-law Ameena Khatun at Sarvaiyanagar in Vapi town and rob valuables from her house. Khan chose July 23 to carry out the crime as he was aware that Khatun was alone at her home on that day as his father-in-law Saifur Rehman Khan and other family members had gone to Bhiwandi to celebrate Eid.
Cops were suspicious about an insider’s role in the murder as the killer knew about the valuables kept in the house and also that Khatun was staying alone for a few days. “When we reached the crime scene, the body was in the kitchen and we noticed a glass bowl filled with ‘sevaiya’ on the kitchen platform. So, these few circumstances strengthened our suspicion of an insider’s role,” said a police official. He added that Khatun would not have served the sweet in a glass bowl, had it been a stranger.
Police then relied on technical aspects and probed the mobile phone locations of family members and CCTV camera footage. The special operations group found out that on July 22 and July 23, while all other family members were not in Gujarat, Khan’s phone’s location showed that he was in Vapi.
Khan was picked up from his home in Ghatkopar in Mumbai for questioning. During interrogation, he admitted to the crime. He had taken a train from Mumbai to Vapi and after returning he sold the jewellery in Narayannagar area.
“He remained present during the woman’s funeral and kept asking his father-in-law about the developments in the investigation,” the police official said.