In a shocking incident, the son of Delhi’s former Director of Prosecution SK Datta was murdered and the house was robbed by armed dacoits, who had barged into it by cutting an iron grill of the window. The dacoits managed to rob gold jewellery, `25,000 in cash and mobile phones.
Identified as Animesh (35), the deceased was sleeping in his room when he heard the noise. He tried to stop the dacoits and put up a stiff resistance. Angry over his bid, the dacoits pinned him down on the bed and then smothered him to death.
A case of armed dacoity and murder under Sections 395/396/302/34 has been registered at Preet Vihar police station. Forensic experts, who visited the spot, have reportedly picked chance prints, allegedly belonging to the accused persons. A senior police officer said that Animesh is suspected to have been killed for putting up resistance as there were no injury marks on the body; and police believed that he was smothered to death. The CCTV footage of the area where the house is located is being examined.
The incident occurred in the wee hours on Thursday morning around 2:30 am. Seven masked men (around 25 years of age) cut the iron grill of the window which opens up to the drawing room and gained entry into the house of SK Datta located at Madhuban Colony in Preet Vihar. SK Datta (71) his wife Prabha Datta (67) and their son Animesh (35) were present in the house at the time on the incident.
It appears that the dacoits first entered his son’s room and tied him up but he resisted their attempts and the dacoits smothered him to death. On hearing the noise and screams of their struggling son, SK Datta and his wife rushed to the room. The dacoits tied and gagged them up too in the other room and robbed the house and even took out the jewellery that Prabha Datta was wearing and escaped. Somehow Prabha Datta managed to free herself and untied her husband. They both rushed to the room and saw their son unconscious. They ran out in search of help and rang the neighbour’s bell. Then they all went to the adjacent house where a female doctor resides. She immediately rushed for their help but said that he was already dead. He was immediately rushed to the nearby Metro Hospital where he was declared brought dead.
There are about 250 houses in the locality and mostly retired IPS officers reside here. Madhuban is considered to be a safe locality of the East district but the brazenness displayed by the dacoits paints Delhi Police in a bad picture. NK Singhal a retired Inspector General of Police is the next door neighbour to Dattas.
“They were around 6 to 7 masked men who were conversing in Hindi. I heard screams and ran to my son’s room. They tied us up and robbed the house and killed my son,” said a grieving father. What is more galling is the fact that the Forensic Science laboratory (FSl) team from Rohini took ages to arrive at the crime scene. The local police had to wait for over six hours before the FSl team finally arrived.
“The family had rung my doorbell at around 3:45 am and we immediately came out for help. We then called out the doctor who lives in the adjacent house. The doctor tried her best to revive him but he was already dead. We did not hear any scream and even my son was awake till late night working on his laptop but did not hear anything. From two days, we did not even hear the watchman whistle,” said a neighbour. Strangely, the security guards deployed in the locality were missing mysteriously for the last two days.