Mumbai: Five people including the grandson of the senior citizen, who was found dead near his flat on Tuesday morning, were arrested on Thursday in connection with the murder.
Aja Lama (78) was found stabbed to death in the staircase of Sant Niwas building on Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg. “While scanning CCTV footage, we saw some people had consistently been visiting the vicinity of the building for several days in a row. A study of their movements indicated that they might have been conducting a recce and we started exploring this angle,” an officer at MRA Marg police station said.
The police then made stills of the footage capturing the suspects and showed it to people in and around the building. Some of them said they had seen one of the men come to the building along with Lama’s grandson Dorji Lama (29), who stays in Dombivli.
“We had already made inquiries with Dorji after Lama’s death and he told us that he loved his grandfather very much as he single handedly raised Dorji after he lost his parents in an accident 10 years ago. We once again called him for questioning and while he initially denied having gone to the building, he ultimately confessed,” the officer said.
Dorji, in his alleged confession, said he wanted to make a fast buck, and believed he would inherit Lama’s property in the event of the his death. He hatched a plan along with four of his friends, who also stay in Dombivli, promising to pay them handsomely once he gets Lama’s property.
Keeping a watch
The four accomplices, identified as Utkarsh Soni (19), Arjun Bhise (22), Jayesh Kanojia (19) and Anand Rai (21), started keeping a watch outside Lama’s building for over a week. They learned that Lama would leave on his bicycle at 5.30 p.m. every day, go to Colaba market to collect rent from vendors at three stalls owned by him, and return by 8.30 p.m.
“On Monday night, the four accused waited in the staircase for Lama to return. As the building, apart from Lama’s residence, is entirely commercial, everyone had left for the day. As soon as Lama came up the staircase leading up to the first floor, they accosted him and stabbed him to death. The body lay there all night and was spotted the next morning by a tailor who has his shop on the second floor,” the officer said.
All the five were arrested following Dorji’s alleged confession, and charged with murder under the Indian Penal Code.
