Helps held in Sainik Farms murder case

NEW DELHI: A bicycle parked outside the house of 70-year-old Kashi Dutt Tripathi, a retired chief engineer and brother-in-law of CBI director Vijay Shanker, who was found murdered inside his house at Sainik Farms on Wednesday, has helped the police crack the case.

In an early breakthrough on Friday, the police arrested three men allegedly involved in the murder of Tripathi, putting down the motive as robbery. The three were Ramesh (24), Raju (20) and Sarju (42). Ramesh was working as a driver, Raju was a security guard and Sarju a rickshaw-puller.

Raju and Sarju had come to Tripathi's residence on a bicycle at 10 am on Wednesday. ''The entry wasn't forced so we had to interrogate every person who could have possibly known the victim. During questioning, we came to know that a bicycle was seen outside Tripathi's residence from 10 am till the afternoon, which pointed to the involvement of some locals in the crime,'' said DCP, South, Anil Shukla.

Tripathi's body had been found in the bathroom of the servant quarters. He had injury marks on the mouth and head and was tied to a chair. The main gate of the house was found open and there were marks indicating that something had been dragged on the floor from the driveway, where a car was parked.

Police interrogated around 400 persons in and around Sainik Farms, Neb Sarai and Devli before solving the case. ''The robbery had been planned by Ramesh alias Vijay who used to work as a casual driver at Tripathi's neighbour's house and had driven for the Tripathi family occasionally. He was aware that Tripathi would be alone and roped in his friends, Raju, who worked as a security guard in the neighbourhood, and Sarju, a rickshawpuller,'' said Shukla.