Hyderabad: In a case of murder for gain, robbers killed a sexagenarian by removing his oxygen mask and taping his mouth, before fleeing with Rs 50 lakh cash and 50 tolas gold ornaments. The unidentified suspects blindfolded the old man’s wife and tied her limbs with shoelaces and affixed a plaster to her mouth as well.
The incident took place at Sirimalle Colony in Hyderguda of Rajendranagar during the wee hours of Friday when the couple Rajendraprasad Agarwal, 68, and his wife Taramathi, 63, were sleeping. Their two sons lived in the neighbouring lanes separately with their families.
At around 2 am, two unidentified masked men entered the house and directly went to the bedroom where the couple was sleeping. “Taramathi said the suspects blindfolded her and tied her limbs, before fixing a white coloured tape to her mouth preventing her from raising an alarm. They then removed her husband's oxygen mask and taped his mouth as well. They picked up the keys of an almirah from a cupboard and took away the gold and cash. After they fled, she removed her blindfold and crawled towards a table, found a knife and used it to cut the laces”, said Rajendranagar inspector G Suresh.
He said that the woman then went to see her husband; he was unconscious on the bed with a white coloured tape affixed to his mouth and his oxygen mask removed.
As the suspects took away the couple’s mobile phones, Taramathi went out and woke up their family doctor M.F.Z. Adoni, who stayed in the same lane. Adoni confirmed Agarwal’s death to Taramathi and then called her younger son Rohit Agarwal, said the inspector.
“The police received a call at around 3 am, and teams immediately rushed there along with a dog squad and clues team. Senior police officials also reached the spot and inspected the scene of the crime. No injuries were found on the old man's body, but the woman had bruises on her hands,” said Suresh.
The autopsy was performed on Agarwal’s body at Osmania General Hospital and handed over to his son Rohit.
There was no breakage of locks or door, except an opened kitchen window. The investigators are still not sure from where the suspects gained entry. The kitchen window was unlatched from inside.
Whether the robbers gained entry from there or exited from there is not sure. No other signs of breaking into the house were found, said the officials.
“A CCTV camera installed in front of the house of the deceased person had not been working for the last two days. We are checking if its wires were cut by the suspects, or it happened due to heavy rains”, said an investigating official.
