Elderly couple killed in South Delhi, house ransacked

In a shocking double murder in the city, an elderly couple was smothered to death by unidentified assailants at home in South Delhi’s East of Kailash area on Thursday night. Preliminary investigations point to the involvement of a Bangladeshi gang, which has been known for brutal murders during robberies.

The police said that the couple stayed in the building and their two sons lived with their families on separate floors. Manohar Lal Madan, 85, a retired bank official, and his wife Vimla, 79, were murdered while they were asleep by robbers who entered their room, which was found to be ransacked after the incident, on the ground floor of the building. DCP (southeast) Mandeep Singh Randhawa said that a case of robbery and murder has been registered at Amar Colony police station.

The elderly couple lived on the ground floor of the three-storey building, their youngest son lives on the first floor with his family and the eldest, who had come from Mumbai for Diwali, was staying on the top floor. The second son of the Madans lives abroad.

According to the police, the incident was reported at about 2.15 am by the couple’s youngest son Sanjay Madan (48), a senior consultant at a multinational IT company, who told the police that he was awakened by a sudden flash of light which fell on his face while he was asleep.

On waking up, he heard the sound of someone running in the building. He soon alerted his 19-year-old daughter and both went to check on the elderly couple. On reaching downstairs, they found that the sliding door to the victims’ room was wide open. The elderly couple was found lying motionless on the bed and the room was ransacked. On realising something was wrong, they raised an alarm and Sanjay called up the police control room.

The couple was rushed to the AIIMS Trauma Centre where they were declared brought dead and their bodies were sent for autopsy in the morning.

Manohar’s eldest son Ashwani Madan is also a mid-level executive at a bank in Mumbai. Preliminary investigation revealed that the couple was killed by assailants who allegedly smothered them, probably with a pillow. However, the exact cause and time of death can be ascertained only after the police receives the post-mortem report, said a senior police official.

The Madans did not have any domestic help living with them and a woman used to come to their house for two hours every day for cleaning and other household chores.

Several teams have been formed and the police has obtained CCTV footage from nearby premises, which are being monitored. But the identity of the accused could not be ascertained till evening.