The main accused in the Gokalpuri double murder case, Ashish Bhargav, who was on the run for three days, was arrested on Wednesday evening from Ghaziabad, Delhi Police said on Thursday. However, his aide Vikas alias Virat, who allegedly helped the prime accused carry out the gruesome murders, is still absconding.
The police had earlier arrested Monika, 30, the daughter-in-law of the elderly couple — Radhey Shyam Verma, 72, a retired vice-principal of a government school, and his wife Veena, 68 — for planning the murders with Mr. Bhargav. The couple was found murdered on Monday morning at their house in north-east Delhi’s Gokalpuri.
‘Daughter-in-law’s idea’
During interrogation, Mr. Bhargav confessed to the murders and claimed that Ms. Monika came up with the idea of killing her parents-in-law, a senior police officer said.
“He said that he had initially resisted the idea and asked Monika to elope with him, along with her five-year-old son. Ashish said Monika did not agree with his idea and started planning the murders in December 2022. Ashish then convinced Vikas, also from Ghaziabad, to help him,” the officer said.
He added that Ms. Monika also wanted to kill her husband, Ravi Rattan, 38, and claim the family’s property worth ₹1.30 crore, before settling down with Mr. Bhargav, who used to work as a bouncer at a mall in Ghaziabad.
Mr. Bhargav, arrested near his house in Ghaziabad’s Shastri Nagar, was sent to five-day police custody. Ms. Monika is in four-day police remand.
The senior officer said the elderly couple was murdered with two razor blades, which Mr. Bhargav and Mr. Vikas bought two days before committing the crime. “Now that we have got the main accused’s custody, we will find the weapons of offence and other details of the case. We will also interrogate Ashish to know Vikas’s whereabouts,” the officer said. He also said that Mr. Bhargav went to Haridwar after committing the crime to hide from the police before returning to Ghaziabad.
