Three days after a DU assistant professor was found dead at her residence in east Delhi, police on Sunday arrested a West Bengal couple and detained their 13-year-old son, unraveling a plot to kill the 45-year-old over a dispute related to ancestral property she owned in the eastern state.
The suspected family was renting a property in the Bardhaman district of West Bengal, which the professor inherited from her grandmother. Investigators revealed that they traveled 1,400 kilometers by train to Delhi to carry out the murder on June 3.
The three suspects were taken into custody on Sunday morning in Bardhaman, and the couple will be produced before a city court on Monday, officials said. Their son will appear before the Juvenile Justice Board, the officials said, adding that they will seek the board’s permission to bring the boy to Delhi. “If the council rejects our request, we will ask them to send the boy to a local correctional home for boys,” a police officer said.
On the afternoon of June 4, the assistant professor’s body was found in her locked apartment on the sixth floor of a high-rise residential apartment in Vasundhara area after her sister informed the police that she was not answering her phone. Officers familiar with the case said the locks were broken, and the body was found in the drawing room near the sofa with serious injuries to its head and face, as well as bruised wrists. Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order, Zone 1) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said the accused conspired to kill the professor and came to Delhi prepared.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Rajeev Kumar said that the victim had rented out Bardhaman’s house to the couple in 2023 for $10,000 per month. The Public Prosecution said: “About a year ago, the couple offered to buy the house, but the teacher refused and asked them to vacate the property because she did not want to sell her grandmother’s house.”
But the couple did not vacate the house, claiming that they had spent money $1.5 lakh for its repair and refurbishment. Kumar added that the dispute escalated, and the assistant professor issued an ultimatum to the couple, after which they conspired to kill her.
According to investigators, the couple planned the murder a week before the crime occurred. They took a train from Bardhaman on 2 June and reached Delhi the next day carrying a pestle and a razor (ustra). They arrived at the professor’s apartment on the sixth floor at around 4.15pm on 3 June. Investigators said that the couple brought their minor son to mislead the police and avoid suspicion. They also carried fake Aadhaar cards, which they used to check into a guest house in Dallupura near Vasundhara Enclave.
“On June 3, the three took a taxi from the guest house, reached the professor’s society, and entered the building wearing masks. The man was even wearing a cap. They reached the apartment using stairs and lifts, carried out the crime, and returned in the same cab that was waiting outside,” DCP Kumar said. “After the murder, they left for Anand Vihar railway station in the same cabin as planned. From there, they took an auto rickshaw to New Delhi railway station and boarded the Purva Express at 5.40 pm. They reached Bardhaman the next day, June 4,” he added.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Eastern Range), AK Singla, said the couple and their son entered the professor’s apartment amicably because she knew them. They told her they had come to discuss the property dispute.
“The couple claims that they initially tried to convince the professor not to evict them and accept their offer to buy the property. But she denied and asked them to leave. Soon after, the couple attacked her head with a pestle and cut her wrists with a razor. After the murder, they changed their clothes, locked the apartment from the outside, and left. Everything happened within 15 minutes,” Singla said.
To solve the case, investigators analyzed surveillance cameras in and around the community, focusing on 13 people who entered and exited around the time of the crime. A couple and a young boy with their faces covered were seen moving through the building using stairs and elevators, emerging in various outfits. Technical analysis and CCTV analyzes established that the accused stayed at Dhalupura Guest House before committing the crime.
Investigators traced two Aadhaar cards from the guest house’s records and put the associated mobile numbers under electronic surveillance. “The investigation revealed that the accused used the Aadhaar credentials of unrelated persons to hide their identities and evade detection,” the DCP said. The victim’s family members reported the property dispute in Bardhaman, which helped in identifying the suspects. The arrested man runs a sanitary ware store while his wife is a housewife.
The victim’s phone, the razor used in the crime, a backpack, clothes and a hat used by the suspects were confiscated, in addition to train tickets. The police are trying to recover the pestle.
