The Hindu : New Delhi News : Businessman bludgeoned to death, servant arrested

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Businessman bludgeoned to death, servant arrested

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 12. A 63-year-old businessman was bludgeoned to death allegedly by his Nepalese domestic help at his second-floor Khan Market residence here on Sunday. However, the accused was locked up inside the house by the victim's daughter and later arrested by the police.

Around 11-45 p.m., the police received a distress call from a woman, Smriti Madan, claiming that something had gone amiss in her Khan Market house. A Police Control Room (PCR) van and the local police immediately reached the spot and saw that some guards deployed nearby had gathered there.

Smriti told the police that around 9 p.m. she had left to have dinner with her friend, while her father, Narendra Nath Madan, was in the house with the domestic help, Ravi Kumar. Around 10-30 p.m., she tried to contact Mr. Madan over phone but no one picked up the call. Suspecting that something was wrong, she returned home. As she entered the house, she was shocked to see bloodstained footprints in the drawing room. She noticed an almost empty liquor bottle and a bag lying nearby.

Showing presence of mind, Smriti immediately locked the house from the backside and raised an alarm, after which she also called up the police. As the police entered the house, they found that it had been ransacked.

They were about to enter the bedroom when a person emerged from inside and tried to flee, but he was overpowered. Smriti identified him as her domestic help, Ravi. The police discovered Mr. Madan's body lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, while a wooden log that was apparently used to kill him was also found at a distance.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), Anita Roy, when he was caught, Ravi was in an inebriated state and was not fit for any questioning. At first, he denied his involvement.

However, Smriti recalled that on Sunday, Ravi had been saying that he would visit his home in Nepal as his father was ill.

In the afternoon, he went to meet his friend, Arjun Thapa, where he had drinks and then came back. Investigations revealed that after Smriti left for dinner, Ravi allegedly hit Mr. Madan on the head with the wooden log several times, due to which he bled profusely and died on the spot.

After killing him, Ravi tried to find the keys to the almirah in which jewellery and cash were kept. Meanwhile, he kept drinking.

Circumstantial evidence suggest that Ravi tried to break open the almirah but in vain. He was unable to locate the keys as it was in Mr. Madan's pocket on the side in which he fell, which was later found by the police.

"During interrogation, Ravi confessed to having murdered Mr. Madan with an intension to flee to Nepal with the valuables kept in the house," said Ms. Roy.

Ravi earlier worked at Sonepat and was employed by Mr. Madan two years ago on reference from a family friend.

He was given a separate room to stay and had also been provided a television and other facilities for a "comfortable living". Smriti told the police that her second domestic help, who is also a Nepali national, is presently with her mother in Shimla.

The police said Mr. Madan owned several houses in Delhi and Shimla, which he had rented out for earning. He also owned one Ritz Cinema in Shimla.

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