The Hindu : New Delhi News : Nepalese arrested for couple's murder

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 23, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Nepalese arrested for couple's murder

By Our Staff Reporter

The Delhi Police Commissioner, K.K. Paul, showing the photograph of the accused Bharat Bhandari, who was arrested in a double murder case of a retired General and his wife, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: S. Arneja

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22. A Nepalese national arrested from Maharaj Ganj in Uttar Pradesh for his alleged involvement in the brutal murder of Lieutenant-General Harnam Singh Seth and his wife at their Vasant Enclave residence in South-West Delhi on Sunday is being brought to the Capital on transit remand. While two medals and Rs. 5,000 in cash stolen from the slain couple's house were recovered from his possession, the police have launched a hunt for his accomplice.

The Police Commissioner of Delhi, K.K. Paul, today said that soon after the identity of one of the assailants, Bharat Bhandari, was established, the police tried to trace him and found out that he had fled to Gorakhpur a day after the double murder came to light.

They then sent his photograph and other particulars to their Uttar Pradesh counterparts. Bharat, son of Tope Bahadur, was travelling in a bus bound for the Indo-Nepal border when the Maharaj Ganj police arrested him at Sounali on Monday. A search of his belongings led to the recovery of two medals and Rs. 5,000.

According to the police, Bharat, a resident of Vasant Goan, his father, mother, sister and his wife had worked at Gen Seth's residence as domestic helps from 1983 to 2000. Bharat, who was allegedly a habitual drinker, was arrested for his involvement in a burglary case at Vasant Vihar in 1994.

Later, he started working for the Seths and after he got married, his wife, Maya, also joined there as a domestic help.But, she eloped with some other person over three years ago.

Irritated by his drinking habit, General Seth removed Bharat from the job, following which he started pestering him to hand over the money, which he was supposed to have been depositing in the name of his wife. The General refused to do so. This apparently irked Bharat and he started planning a burglary at Seths' residence. As he had been to the General's house on several occasions in 2001, he had a fair idea of the interior of the house.

The police suspect that a burglary attempt at the Seths' residence was Bharat's handiwork.

In the wee hours of Sunday, Bharat and his accomplice, a native of West Bengal, barged into the Seths' duplex house through the second floor balcony, murdered them using elephant tusks and ran away with the cash and medals, including the Param Vishishth Sewa Medal, kept in the bedroom's almirah.

"We would get to know more about the sequence of events leading to the murders after Bharat's interrogation," said the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-West Delhi), Shalini Singh, adding that the other accomplice had also been identified and police teams were trying to trace him.

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