Navi Mumbai: An Ulwe resident, Lakshmidevi Ramprasad Gupta, who was brutally attacked by her daughter-in-law's brother last month, has revealed in her statement to police that the accused also murdered her husband in her presence to avoid repaying ₹70,000 that he had borrowed from them.
On April 22, at around 10 am, the accused, Sandeep Jagjeevan Gupta, went to their house and told her husband, Ramprasad Gupta that he wanted to talk to him. They both went into the bedroom while Ms. Gupta went into the kitchen to prepare tea and snacks. When she went to call them for tea, the accused, who had already attacked her husband, slit her throat with a knife. Ms. Gupta said, in her statement, that the accused had come to their house for three days in a row, and the couple believed he he had come to return the money he had borrowed in January. She said he later stole valuables from their cupboard, which included ₹2 lakh cash, 70 gm gold, 1.5 kg of silver and a watch, and fled while the couple lay there bleeding profusely. “I somehow managed to scribble the accused's name on a newspaper and alerted a tyre shop worker in the building,” Ms. Gupta said in her statement.
Her daughter-in-law was at her parents' home, and according to initial investigations, the murder took place over an argument on bringing her back home.
“After we recorded her statement, it is clear that the murder took place with the intention to rob the couple and to avoid paying the money he borrowed from them,” said Smita Jadhav, Senior PI, NRI Coastal police station.
While fleeing, the accused also made away with the deceased's scooty. While police have arrested Gupta and recovered the valuables stolen from their home, they are yet to recover the scooty. Gupta told police he parked the scooty on the roadside with the keys in it, and police suspect that it may have been stolen.
