Mumbai : Little would have the slain septuagenarian couple, Nasher and Nargis Irani, thought that a 12-year-old, who had attempted to rob them 18 years ago, return one day to slaughter them in cold blood.
The Thane rural police on Monday morning cracked the murder case of the Parsi couple from Vangaon who were found murdered in their house on Wednesday morning by their maid.
According to police sub-inspector Manoj Landge of the Palghar police station, the accused is the son of a watchman who used to previously work for the couple.
“When the accused was around 12-years-old he had attempted to steal from the couple. Due to such antics, his father had also disowned him,” Landge said. The alleged murderer, Ravi Thakur, had been living in Surat for several years and had recently got married. He was unemployed and going through a severe financial crisis and had to return lakhs of rupees to lenders. Acutely aware about the couple and their advancing old age, Thakur arrived in Vangaon two days before he murdered them.
“He hid in the couple’s farmland, and tracked them for two days. On Monday night, at around 10 pm, he
cut off their electricity supply and immediately went over to their place posing as an electrician and offered to get the supply back. But they refused and told him to come in the morning as they had an inverter – a fact he wasn’t aware of,” Landge said.
Thakur went away only to return the next day, that is Tuesday, at 4.30 pm. That was the time when Nargis (74) used to go for her evening walk and Nasher (76) used to be alone at home. “The accused took his chance and went to the house. He forced his way in and killed Nasher by hitting him with a blunt, wooden object. Incidentally, according to cops, Nausher had recognised his assailant.
While the accused was ransacking the house, Nargis also returned. He slit her throat with a knife he had bought in Surat,” Landge said.
The police have the weapon in their possession. Thakur fled from Palghar with approximately Rs 20,000 cash, mobiles and Nargis’s gold earrings, which she was wearing.
The police, during their investigation, collected information about all the people who had had contact with the couple in the past 30 years, including Thakur’s father, who died four years ago. Thakur was tracked down through Nargis’s mobile phone that he had stolen and switched on two days ago. According to the police, the mobile was specially meant for senior citizens.
After arresting him in Surat at 10.10 am, the police brought him to Mumbai and charged him with double murder. He has been remanded to police custody until December 24.
