In a sensational incident of robbery, a 38-year-old businessman was choked to death by a gang of five robbers, who first sedated the victim’s parents with chloroform and attacked him when he resisted, at a posh DlF farmhouse in South Delhi’s Chhattarpur area on Thursday, said police.
The five accused have been arrested and police are probing the case.
According to a senior police official, the deceased has been identified as Rohan Gupta, a divorcee who used to live with his parents in ‘Peeple Drive’ in Gupta farmhouse. “Rohan was an exporter of hosiery items and ran his factory in Noida,” said the official.
Around 2 am, their security guard, Bharat Singh, noticed five unidentified people climbing the outer wall of their house, said police, adding, “When he protested and asked them to leave, the accused pointed a country-made pistol and asked him to keep quiet. They then allegedly sedated him with chloroform,” police said.
After breaking the mosquito net in their kitchen, the robbers gained access to the two-storey bungalow and went to the ground floor room where Rohan’s parents, Kishan and Reshmi Gupta, were sleeping, said police.
The robbers sedated them with chloroform and started stealing, said police, adding that after a while two of the robbers went upstairs where Rohan was sleeping. Meanwhile, Rohan got up from his sleep after he heard some unusual voices and noticed the two robbers entering his room.
“Rohan shouted for help but they (robbers) pinned him down to the bed and shouted out to their friends for help. The other accused quickly ran upstairs, tied Rohan’s hands and legs, stuffed chloroform soaked handkerchief in his mouth and choked him to death,” said the police official.
After murdering Rohan, the robbers quickly stuffed some articles in their bags and ran down to see if there was any danger.
Meanwhile, Aman Sethi, who stays just two houses away and is the nephew of slain late Ponty Chadha, heard the commotion and quickly ran to Rohan’s house with his driver and personal security officer.
“I saw three robbers coming out from the gate and asked them what they were doing there to which they replied that they had some work in the house. When I pressed further, they quickly ran inside and locked the main gate from inside. I immediately called police and asked my gunman to open the gate,” said Sethi adding, “By the time we entered the bungalow, the robbers escaped from the backside. We entered the house from the front door as it was open but to my horror Rohan was lying dead in his room and his parents were unconscious,”
The robbers then headed towards the main gate of the farmhouse plot area where they were stopped by the private security guards for questioning. “We asked them where they were coming from. And when they could not reply properly, we got suspicious. When they told us that they had lost their way we detained them in our room,” said Sandeep Kumar, Chief Security Officer, DlF Chhattarpur.
When police came over to the farmhouse, the security guards handed over the accused, identified as Ajay Kumar, Vipin Kumar, Vinod Sahni, Shivnath Sahni and Shyam Babu, to police who on further questioning arrested them.
Sources privy to the investigation said, “Rohan’s former domestic help might have link to the robbers as he was sacked by him in last year’s Diwali and was not given salary.”
Police recovered mobile phones, gold chains and foreign currency coins from the accused. Sources said all the five had railway tickets which showed that they had arrived from Muzaffarpur in Bihar on Tuesday.
Rohan is survived by his parents. His former wife stays with his son in Gurgaon. “When my son reached home I asked him if he had his dinner. He told me not to worry and go off to sleep. After getting back to my senses the first thing I saw was my dead son,” sobbed Reshmi, Rohan’s mother.
“A case under sections 396, 460 IPC and Arms act has been registered and the five arrested people are being interrogated. We have also found out a local link to the robbers and probing further,” said DCP (south) Ishwar Singh.