Delhi Police Search For Third Suspect In Murder Of Ex-Union Minister's Wife

Three Delhi Police teams are conducting raids to arrest the third suspect in the murder of Kitty Kumaramangalam, the wife of late Union minister P Rangaraja Kumaramangalam, the police said today.

The late Union minister's wife was killed on Tuesday night during an attempted robbery at her home in southwest Delhi's Vasant Vihar, the police said.

The police had arrested two accused -- Raju, 24, and Rakesh Raj, 34, -- and taken them into police remand for two days on Thursday, officials said.

Raids are being conducted in Rajasthan and areas in and around the national capital to arrest Suraj, the third suspect in the case, who is suspected to have fled to Jaipur with the robbed gold ornaments to sell them, the police said.

"We have deployed three teams who have been working round-the-clock to locate and nab Suraj. His last location was near Jaipur in Rajasthan but he keeps switching off his mobile phone. Technical surveillance has also been mounted to track him," a senior police officer said.

Financial crisis during the Covid pandemic and the greed for money led the three men to execute the murder-cum-robbery which they had been planning for over a month, the police said.

The victim was an easy target for them as Raju had been working in the area as a washerman (dhobi) for over five years and visited the victim's house on a regular basis, the officer said.

Raju used to keep the washed clothes back in the victim's cupboard on many occasions because she trusted him and had known him personally, he was aware of the locker and the valuables kept inside the cupboard, the police said.

The locker looted by the accused was recovered from Raju on Wednesday, the day he was arrested but it only had essential documents while Rs 60,000 robbed cash was recovered after Rakesh was arrested, they said.

The vehicle which the three accused had used to reach the house has also been recovered, as their entry into the building was captured on a CCTV camera, the police said.

"The two accused have confessed to their crime but the actual truth will be known after the third suspect is nabbed and interrogated following which each of their versions will be corroborated," the officer said.

The 70-year-old lawyer was killed on Tuesday night by the three men during the robbery. They held the house help hostage in a room, then attacked Ms Kumaramangalam, and murdered her, officials added.

P Rangarajan Kumaramangalam served as a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between 1998 and 2001.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)