New Delhi: An elderly couple has been allegedly murdered by a male nurse in their flat in the national capital, police said on Saturday.
The deceased have been identified as Ram Lal Bhuttan, 70, and his wife Kaushalya Bhuttan, 65, who were found dead at around 9 a.m in their flat in Deep Enclave housing society of Ashok Vihar Phase-III in north Delhi.
Police said Ram Lal Bhuttan had been suffering from heart problems and paralysis for some time. Their male nurse, Dulal Sarkar, took care of him during daytime. Some five days ago, the couple hired one more nurse, Dinesh Kumar, 23, to take care of him during the evenings.
The incident came to light at around 9 a.m when Ram Lal Bhuttan's brother-in-law A.C. Chawla made several phone calls to them but neither responded. Thereafter, he called up Sarkar, who said he got a call from Kumar in the morning that Ram Lal Bhuttan was admitted in Delhi Heart Institute due to pain in chest.
Chawla then visited their residence, which was locked, and informed police.
Police force-opened the door and found them murdered there. Ram Lal Bhuttan was strangulated and his wife Kaushalya Bhuttan's throat slit, a senior police officer said. The entire flat was ransacked and valuables were also found missing, he said.
"Ram Lal Bhuttan had recently undergone a heart surgery. Since the couple had no children and her wife was unable to take care of him properly, they had hired the two male nurses. Out of the two, Sarkar is the prime suspect, who was hired on August 27," he said.
"We have constituted eight teams to arrest Dinesh Kumar, who is also missing. We have searched his house in Jahangirpuri area and his last phone location was also found in the same area. A search is on at his all possible hideouts," Deputy Commissioner of Police Milind Mahadeo Dumbre said.
Ram Lal Bhuttan had retired as a senior officer from the Audit Department of the Home Ministry and his wife was a retired teacher of Kendriya Vidyalaya. They were staying in Deep Enclave for the last 25 years.
There are 325 flats in the society, in which 100 senior citizens stay with their family members, while 20 of them stay alone. The society has no CCTV cameras installed at the main entrance.
As per the available data, there are 27,033 elderly persons living in the national capital and registered themselves with Delhi Police. Besides, a large number of elderly persons are living alone in different localities of the city.