New Delhi: Police in the Gokalpuri area of north-east Delhi have held a 29-year-old woman, Monika Verma, for questioning regarding the alleged murder of her parents-in-law, Radhey Shyam Verma (72) and Veena Verma (68).
The police claim that Verma had planned the “murder” with her 29-year-old lover, Ashish Bhargav, who was arrested Wednesday.
The elderly couple was found dead at their Gokalpuri home Monday, their throats slit. The police said the murder had been planned since December after the family came to know of Monika and Bhargav’s affair — the two had met on Facebook in 2020 — and “imposed restrictions” on Monika.
Bhargav, a resident of Ghaziabad, was apprehended by the police last evening.
He will appear in court and be sent to Delhi on police remand for further investigation. Monika has been in police custody since Monday. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Joy Tirkey, the police are actively searching for Ashish’s friend Vikas, who allegedly helped execute the murder and is currently absconding.
The police have lodged a case under sections 302 (murder), 392 (punishment for robbery), and 457 (lurking house trespass) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the three accused.
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‘Resentment towards in-laws’
On the early morning of 10 April, the police received a call regarding the double murder in Gokalpuri’s Bhagirathi Vihar — Radhey Shyam and Veena had been found dead in the ground floor bedroom of their home. Their house had also been ransacked and some jewellery and Rs 4.5 lakh were reported missing.
Radhey Shyam was the vice-principal of Delhi Government School in Karol Bagh and the family had been residing in the house for 38 years. He had also recently taken an advance of Rs 5 lakh as advance to sell the rear portion of the house, the police said.
At the time of the murder, Rattan Ravi, the couple’s son and Monika’s husband, had been asleep in his bedroom on the first floor of the house with his wife and 6-year-old son Jayesh. Ravi, 38, runs a garment and cosmetics shop in Johripur. He had last seen his parents at 10:30 pm Sunday.
Initially, it appeared to be a case of robbery. However, during investigation, Monika confessed to the murder and named Bhargav and his friend Vikas as accomplices, the police said at a press conference Wednesday. The motive, they said, seems to be Monika’s resentment towards her husband and in-laws. She also wanted to sell their property and use that money to “settle down” with Bhargav, they added.
“The planning of the murder seems meticulous. The accused had observed the movement of the elderly couple and ascertained the location of their room as being close to the back gate,” said a press note by the police.
The Delhi Police had deployed a team of 2 assistant commissioners of police (ACPs) and 8 inspectors Monday to investigate the case.
Love affair gone wrong
Monika, a Delhi University graduate, allegedly met Bhargav on social media during the pandemic in August 2020.
Her husband Ravi, though, eventually found out about her relationship and confiscated her smartphone. According to reports, Ashish would frequently take Monika to his home in Ghaziabad and had introduced her to his family as his “girlfriend”. However, when his mother discovered that Monika was married and had a child, she expressed her opposition to the relationship.
According to the DCP, Monika, who was already feeling suffocated by her husband’s and his parents’ “interventions” had discovered that her father-in-law was going to sell the property and move to Dwarka. She then started planning the crime last December.
They allegedly met in a hotel on 20 February to plot the couple’s murder and even got a SIM card under a fake name to communicate. The police said that Monika had intended to kill Ravi as well, but refrained from doing so since their son shared their room. Monika and Bhargav, the police added, met on 27 February to finalise their plans.
On 9 April, after the family had gone to bed at 10.30 pm, Monica allegedly let Ashish and Vikas into the house through the back door.
“On Sunday evening, at 7 pm, Monika’s friend and his aide allegedly entered the house through the rear door and were taken to the terrace (to wait till the family went to bed),” said the police. “At 2:20 am, they choked Veena and slit her neck and also killed Verma. They took money and jewellery from cupboards and left. While investigating, one of the first things we saw were the cupboards. Not all of them were open…the back door looked like it had been left open. We suspected it was an inside job,” said Tirkey in his statement.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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