NEW DELHI: Failure in eatery business forced a 42-year-old woman and her live-in partner to commit the ghastly triple murder in South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar last week.
The deceased couple’s family friend Preeti Sherawat (42) and her boyfriend Manoj Bhatt (39), were arrested on Wednesday. Sleuths of the Delhi police crime branch claimed that the murder of septuagenarian Vishnu Mathur and his wife Shashi Mathur alongwith their domestic nurse Khushbu Nautiyal was allegedly committed by the duo. Both were constantly on the look-out for a vulnerable target.
The accused duo were nabbed from a hotel in Gurugram. The bodies of the elderly couple and their nursing attendant were found with their throats slit on Sunday morning at their residence in Vasant Apartment near Delhi’s Vasant Village.
Police said that Preeti used to run a restaurant in Sector 9 of Gurugram. She had married to one Nicholas in 2000 but her husband left her in 2005 and settled in Canada. She met Manoj at her birthday party about three years back and started a live-in relationship with him.
They suffered huge loss in restaurant business, started a Paying Guest House and again suffered loss, said Satish Golcha, special commissioner of police, crime branch.
During investigation, a vital clue was provided by Mathurs’ daughter who revealed that Preeti, who was their family friend, had suddenly visited her parents on June 17 and had also stayed there overnight. Preeti had used Khushbu’s phone to talk to the daughter of the elderly couple, said the Special CP.
Subsequently, a police team was deputed to keep track on the movements of Preeti, which revealed that on June 23, she had left her home in Gurugram along with Manoj and checked into a hotel at Sector-31 in Gurugram.
Despite having their own home in Gurugram, they again shifted to another hotel on June 25, said the Special CP, adding that their behaviour and randomly changing hotels created suspicion.
The duo was detained and during search police found Manoj wearing a gold chain with locket and a diamond ring which was suspected to be stolen from the couple’s house. Subsequently both were subjected to interrogation and they confessed to their crime, Mr Golcha said.
