Woman in Delhi strangulated, hacked into pieces, dumped in canal; couple arrested

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A couple allegedly strangulated a 72-year-old woman to death, hacked the body into pieces and dumped it in a canal for seeking repayment of Rs 1.5 lakh they had borrowed from her, police said on Wednesday. The accused, Anil and Kamini Arya, residents of Gurdwara Road in Delhi's Mohan Garden, were nabbed from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly and later arrested, they said.

On July 3, the victim's daughter-in-law filed a missing complaint with the police. Suspicion fell on the couple who were seen in CCTV footage exiting the victim's house with two heavy bags and were missing since July 3. An investigation led police to an autorickshaw driver who revealed that the couple, carrying the heavy bags, had hired his vehicle on the morning of July 1 to go to their friend's place, an officer said.

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The couple had told the autorickshaw driver they were carrying chicken to a friend's house for a night party. They got down from the vehicle at Nala Road, saying their friend was coming to pick them up. In search of the accused couple, police travelled to Ranikhet in Uttarakhand and then to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh where they were found staying in rented accommodation, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Santosh Kumar Meena said.

They were brought to Delhi on Monday and arrested after sustained interrogation, the police officer said. According to police, the couple had borrowed around Rs 1.5 lakh from the elderly woman to open an event-management business. When the woman kept asking them to return the money, the couple hatched a plan to kill her, they said.

Taking the opportunity of the woman's family members visiting their kin in Haryana's Sirsa, the couple came to stay with her on June 30. During an argument over the borrowed money at night Anil punched the woman knocking her unconscious and then strangulated her to death, police said.

They hacked the body into pieces, stuffed it in two bags and dumped those in the Najafgarh drain. After two days, they fled taking with them a cheque book, ID cards some jewellery and a mobile phone of the woman, the DCP said. They had mortgaged the jewellery to a finance company in Uttam Nagar and received Rs 70,000 in cash, police added.

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