Mumbai: A day after an elderly couple was found murdered in their first-floor flat at Khar’s Ekta Elite building along with valuables worth over Rs 5 lakh missing, the Khar police has arrested their housemaid Parvati Khaka (20) and her boyfriend Singhasan Ekka (26) for allegedly strangling Nanak Makhijani (85) and his wife Daya (84) before robbing.
Parvati, who hails from Sundargarh district in Orissa, came to work full-time with the Makhijanis on June 11. She soon saw that the couple was rich and vulnerable and accordingly, hatched a plan to rob them. She invited Singhasan, also from Sundargarh, on Tuesday, and he arrived in the city late Wednesday. Singhasan entered Ekta Elite building at 2 am when the watchman was fast asleep and discreetly knocked on the Makhijanis’ door. Parvati opened the door and let him in, following which, they continued with their plan.
Anil Kumbhare, deputy commissioner of police (zone 8), said, “It is still unclear whether the elderly couple was killed before, during, or after the robbery, but the Makhijanis were both suffocated and strangulated in a bid to kill them. When the police reached the spot Thursday morning, the Makhijanis’ hands and legs had been tied with a rope, and a dupatta had been wrapped tightly around their necks. We are still probing the motivation to kill them.”
Parvati and Singhasan decamped with jewellery worth Rs 10 lakh including nine rings, 28 bangles, 44 tops, nine watches, chains and cash worth Rs 9,000. They boarded the 6.13 am Gitanjali Express from Dadar central railway station to their hometown in Orissa. The Mumbai police, along with the Nagpur GRP, arrested the duo from Nagpur at 6.55 pm on Thursday.
