Mumbai: Victim suffocated after being gagged by looting trio

Surekha Agrawal, the deceased

An early morning robbery at Tardeo's Yusuf Manzil society on Sunday left a 69-year-old woman dead and spread panic in the area. Cops said three masked men barged into the third-floor flat of the Agrawals around 7 am and fled with gold, cash and other valuables. The wife died of suffocation, as the robbers had wrapped their faces with cello tape, cops said.

The Tardeo police have registered an FIR into the matter and started an investigation. They have identified the deceased woman as Surekha Madanmohan Agrawal, 69, and her husband as Madanmohan Agrawal, 75. The incident occurred at Yusuf Manzil society at Tardeo in Mumbai Central West, around 7 am on Sunday. According to police officers, like always, Madanmohan opened the main door of his house around 7 am for a morning walk with his friends.

The trio looted the Agrawals, who live on the third floor at Yusuf Manzil, in Tardeo, on Sunday morning. Pic/Shadab Khan

However, on Sunday morning, "when I opened the door, three unknown people, with their faces covered with handkerchiefs, pushed me inside the house and started beating me and my wife. The accused then tied our hands and legs with ropes and wrapped our faces with cello tape," Madanmohan told the cops after the incident.

Two of the three accused, carrying stolen items and fleeing the society

According to a police officer, Madanmohan told them that "he had pleaded with the accused to let them live and take whatever they wanted. The trio did not kill them, but they left them fully gagged, in a dire situation." However, Madanmohan's jogger friends grew worried and called him, but got no answer. They rushed to their home and found the main door of the house open. They stepped inside and saw the couple lying on the floor, bound and gagged.

One of the three accused captured fleeing the society on Sunday

His friends immediately removed the cello tape and rushed them to the nearest hospital, where doctors declared Surekha dead, but managed to save Madanmohan. A police officer told mid-day, "The accused had hid Madanmohan's mobile phone inside the refrigerator." The accused were captured in the CCTV cameras of the society entering and fleeing the house. They were wearing caps and carrying bags with stolen gold, cash and other valuables.

The accused were standing outside the door (yellow) of Agrawals when the husband opened the door for his walk

Police are scanning more CCTV cameras for a better facial recognition of the accused. Sources told mid-day that the three accused had come to the building three days ago, too. But, one of the residents had alerted others, after which the accused had fled. The couple's two sons reside at Bhakti Park in Wadala, and their daughter lives in Kharghar, police said.