An officer, who is part of the probe, said Gauri has lost her mother at an early age and herself suffers from arthritis. Her father is also suffering from serious health issues and the grandmother suffered from asthma.HOURS after an elderly woman from Warje was found murdered at her home with injuries of sharp weapon on Tuesday evening, the police have arrested her 24-year-old granddaughter on charges of killing her to rob her of the cash and valuables to repay the loans she had taken from online credit platforms.
The deceased, Sulochana Subhash Dange (70), was found dead in her house in Akashnagar area in Warje on Tuesday evening, when a neighbour had visited to talk to her. An FIR was registered by her granddaughter Gauri Dange (24), who works part time in the credit card department of a bank. The victim lived at the house with her son Sunil and granddaughter Gauri.
The granddaughter in her statement to the police said a cash of nearly 36,000 and gold chain and earrings of her grandmother were missing from the house. Based on the initial statement of the granddaughter, the police started probing robbery as the motive of the murder. Police had also found a razor blade next to the body, suspected to have been used for slitting the victim’s throat and inflicting injury on the hand.
Gauri told the police her grandmother was alone at home since 10.30 am in the morning when she and her father had left the house.
Senior inspector Shankar Khatke, in-charge of Warje Malwadi police station said, “The behaviour of granddaughter raised some suspicion. As part of our probe, we started looking at the possibility of her role in the incident. The probe revealed that Gauri had taken a loan from an online credit platform for expenses. To repay that loan, she had taken loan from another online application and so on. The officials from the loan disbursement entities had started repeatedly calling her for the repayment of the loan. Probe suggests that Gauri smothered her grandmother with a pillow and then inflicted injuries on her with the help of a razor blade and a screw driver.”
Officials said they suspect Gauri to have killed the grandmother sometime around 10.30 am. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 3), Pournima Gaikwad said, “We have arrested the granddaughter on charges of killing and robbing her grandmother. It has come to light that the granddaughter sold the gold ornaments and used the money to repay the loan.”
An officer, who is part of the probe, said Gauri has lost her mother at an early age and herself suffers from arthritis. Her father is also suffering from serious health issues and the grandmother suffered from asthma. Gauri started taking loans from online platforms for the expenses of the family, the officer said.