In a strange twist to the murder of a 55-year-old woman in Paschim Vihar on May 28, the police on Tuesday arrested her daughter and a 21-year-old man, allegedly the latter's boyfriend, and claimed the two had killed her.
The accused, Sakshi Kapoor, was reportedly the sole witness to the incident earlier. She had claimed two robbers barged in that evening and stabbed her mother to death with a knife from the kitchen and a broken beer bottle.
Sakshi, the police had said, hid under the dining table during all this.
On Tuesday, the police theory went thus: the victim, Kiran Kapoor, returned home suddenly last Thursday evening and found her daughter Sakshi, 26, in a "compromising" position with Sunny Batra, 21, a college student. According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern range) Ajai Kashyap, Kapoor, who had earlier warned Sakshi against developing a relationship with Batra, threw a fit and abused the two.
The daughter, who the police claim was deeply spiteful of her mother's authoritative ways, then brought a screw driver and a kitchen knife and, with Batra's help, attacked her mother.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Sharad Aggarwal, who addressed the media along with Joint CP Kashyap on Tuesday afternoon, said, "Panicking after being caught together, the couple stabbed the woman with knives and empty beer bottles. Sakshi then decided to project the incident as a robbery, and the two ransacked the house.
"She (Sakshi) handed over some valuables to Batra and asked him to escape."
The police claimed to have recovered the booty from Batra, a resident of Shalimar Bagh and a second-year engineering student at a Noida institute.
'Broke down on sustained quizzing'Sakshi Kapoor taught at a kindergarten school. Post-murder, on the evening of May 28, she had rung up her uncle Manish Kapoor after calls to her father Ashok Kapoor, who runs a private accounting firm, and brother Saurabh, an accountant in an MNC, went unanswered. Manish Kapoor had informed the police.
On Tuesday, the police said they nailed Sakshi after she kept changing her statement. By the end, she "could not provide any justification for her actions", an officer said. Sakshi reportedly broke down under sustained interrogation and confessed to her crime.
"She also told us about Sunny; we detained him as well," the officer said. "He, too, confessed to the crime."
An officer investigating the case said Sakshi regularly watched a crime investigation serial, CID, on television and was deeply "affected" by it. "Like it is shown in the serial, she thought she would be able to hide the facts by cooking up a false story of robbery and murder by unknown assailants," the officer said.
What The Police SayExplaining the motive behind the murder, Joint CP, Ajai Kashyap said: "She was of questionable character. Sakshi has had a string of boyfriends — at least 11 or 12 in the past years. But her family was completely in the dark about her behaviour and conduct — had her mother known about Sakshi's relationships, she would have severely reprimanded her.
"Kiran Kapoor ensured strict discipline at home."
That disciplinarian streak in Kapoor, Joint CP Kashyap implied, triggered deep hatred for the mother in the 26-year-old. "They (Sakshi and Batra) were caught (by Kiran Kapoor) in the house in a position which is difficult to explain," he added.
The police said Sakshi had met Sunny Batra in Vikaspuri, while he was doing a diploma from an institute.
Reacting to the arrests, National Commission for Women Girija Vyas said, "It is terrible that a daughter has killed her mother. It is very painful and intolerable."
