They robbed the couple of Rs 2 lakh jewellery and an unspecified amount of cash before fleeing after committing the crime early on Sunday.
Police sources said that one of the three suspects has been “identified by someone” and they are close to cracking the case and trying to trace them. Cops also suspect that the suspects are not from Mumbai.
Last Saturday, the suspects had entered the building on the pretext of locating an address. They had asked for an address from the deceased’s husband who was leaving for his morning walk. He told them that the person they were looking for did not stay there, a police investigation has found.
After the crime on Sunday, the accused fled in a taxi, said a senior police officer, adding the trio changed cabs multiple times to avoid being identified. “The probe is at a crucial stage. We can’t share more information,” the officer said.
“We have got the accused’s photographs and shared them with other police stations. The process of identification is on,” said a senior Tardeo police station officer.
Early on Sunday, three unidentified men had barged into the residence of the senior couple, Surekha Agarwal and her husband Madan Mohan (75). The accused tied their hands and gagged them, which resulted in Surekha’s death. The elderly couple occupied a three-bedroom-hall flat on the third floor of Yusuf Manzil. The family runs an imitation jewellery business in south Mumbai.
After they fled, Mohan went to a neighbour’s residence who removed the rope from his hands and adhesive tapes. The neighbors then tried to take off the adhesive tapes from Sureskha’s mouth and rushed her to Nair Hospital where she died later. Mohan, who sustained minor injuries, lodged a police complaint.
A forensic expert team collected fingerprints and other evidence from the flat. “The couple has a househelp who comes in daily in the afternoon. We have questioned her and several other people. We are collecting more information,” said an officer.
A crime branch team is also conducting a parallel probe into the case. Two teams of police have gone outside the city for investigation. One of the teams is focusing on a technical probe.
This is the third murder of a senior citizen in the city in six months and has sparked fear among locals, many of whom are senior citizens living alone. The elderly woman’s death, possibly due to suffocation from the gagging, has left the husband “traumatised and terrorised”, a police officer said.
