A senior citizen was murdered in Hyderabad allegedly by burglars who stole Rs 50 lakh and 40 tola gold worth Rs 10 lakh from his duplex home at Rajendranagar on Friday.
His wife who was tied up by the burglars later alerted the police.
Hyderabad police have set up four special teams to nab the accused.
The victim, 68-year-old Rajendra Prasad Agarwal, was staying at Srimalle Colony with his 64-year-old wife Taramani Agarwal.
At around 1.45am on Friday, at least three robbers broke into the house. The criminals first blindfolded and gagged Taramani with a duct tape.
They then tied her limbs with shoelaces and cables of cell phone chargers, said Taramani to the police.
The burglars removed the oxygen mask of Prasad who was an asthma patient and smothered him to death using a pillow. Prasad was dependent on oxygen cylinders to breathe at night.
“Taramani was in shock when police entered the house and she could not clearly describe what happened. She was not clear whether robbers spoke in Hindi or Telugu. She was also unsure if she saw two offenders or three,” Shamshabad Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), PV Padmaja, told the Times of India.
The burglars spent close to one hour in the house as Taramani played dead. After she was convinced that they had left, she used a knife to set herself free and found her husband lying dead.
Taramani first reached out to a doctor from the neighbourhood. When he found Prasad had no pulse, they took him to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead, Rajendranagar Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), P Ashok, told Times of India.
“The clues team have collected fingerprints from the crime scene. We have formed four special teams to crack the case. We will solve the case soon,” Rajendranagar inspector G Suresh said.
Police have registered a case under Section 302 and 394 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and have launched a probe.
After the autopsy, the body of Prasad was handed over to family members on Friday evening.
Prasad is survived by his wife Taramani and four children.