A young man who allegedly murdered a 35-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter while committing robbery in their house in Sector-I of Rohini on Thursday has been arrested. The police claim to have seized from him the murder weapon and Rs.1.25 lakh in stolen cash.
The police received information about the murder of Yasmin and her daughter Sofiya on Thursday afternoon. Throats of both the victims had been slit with a sharp-edged weapon and the woman’s body had also been set afire.
During questioning, Yasmin’s husband Aslam Ali told the police that cash and a mobile phone were missing from the house. Suspecting that involvement of someone known to the family, the police cross-checked the antecedents of Aslam’s former and present employees and zeroed in one Nadeem (23) who had worked under him for a short duration.
The suspect was picked up from his house in the Wazirpur slums. During interrogation, he broke down and purportedly confessed to having murdered the mother-daughter duo. The accused disclosed that he committed the crime as he was in dire need of money.
Nadeem allegedly disclosed that while working under Aslam, who is a builder, he came to know that the latter kept large sums of cash at his residence. With the intention of committing robbery, he allegedly entered Aslam’s house on Thursday. Soon after Aslam’s wife Yasmin went to the bathroom, he stole the cash kept in an almirah and was fleeing when Sofiya saw him.
The accused gagged Sofiya and slit her throat with a knife. He waited for Yasmin and as she came out of the bathroom, he strangled her with a wire cord and then slit her throat. The accused poured kerosene over her body and set it ablaze, the police said. “Nadeem earlier worked as a mobile repairer and then joined Aslam as an accountant,” the police said.