Robbers drug family, kill trader

A 38-year-old businessman was sedated and strangled to death allegedly by a gang of five robbers in a farmhouse in South Delhi’s Chhattarpur area on Thursday. Five suspects, identified as Ajay, Vipin, Vinod, Shivnath and Vinod Kumar of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, have been arrested by the police.

The deceased, Rohan Gupta, was a divorcee and lived with his parents in the DLF farmhouse. “Gupta was an exporter of hosiery items and had recently started dealing in automobile spare parts in Noida,” said the police.

Gupta is survived by his parents and daughter, who lives with his former wife in Gurgaon.

At about 2 am, security guard Bharat Singh noticed five people climbing the outer wall of the farmhouse. When he raised an alarm and asked them to leave, one of the robbers pointed a country-made pistol at him and warned him to keep quiet. They also allegedly sedated him with chloroform.

“I raised an alarm after witnessing five people climbing the wall of the farmhouse and jumping inside the property. I quickly ran towards them, but before I could do anything, one of them pointed a gun at me and another forced a handkerchief into my nose after which I lost my senses,” said Singh.

After breaking the mosquito net on a kitchen window, the robbers gained access to the two-storey bungalow and went to the ground floor where Gupta’s parents Kishan (70) and Reshmi (65) were sleeping. Both of them were sedated with chloroform and the robbers started stealing valuables from their room. After a while, two of the robbers went upstairs and reached the room where Gupta was sleeping. Gupta woke up after he heard some noise and noticed the two robbers in his room. “Gupta shouted for help as he saw the robbers entering his room, but they pinned him to the bed and called out to their associates for help. The other accused quickly ran upstairs, tied Gupta’s hands and legs, stuffed a chloroform-soaked handkerchief in his mouth and strangled him,” said the police.

After murdering Gupta, the robbers quickly stuffed some articles in their bags. Meanwhile, Aman Sethi, who stays just two houses away, ran to Gupta’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 the police and asked my gunman to open the gate,” said Mr 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. I found Gupta was lying dead in his room and his parents were unconscious,” Mr Sethi said.

The robbers then headed towards the main gate of the farmhouse area where they were stopped by the private security guards. “We got suspicious when they told us that they had lost their way and hence detained them in our room,” said Sandeep Kumar, chief security officer, DLF Chhattarpur.

The security guards handed over the accused to the cops. The police recovered mobile phones, gold chains and foreign currency coins from the accused.