5 men held for killing two maids at a house in southeast Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): Five men were arrested for allegedly stealing around Rs 90 lakh cash after killing two female maids at a house in southeast Delhi's Jangpura Extension, police said on Wednesday.
The two women -- Meena Rai (35) and 40 (Sujaila Gurung) -- hailed from Darjeeling in West Bengal and had been living in the staff quarters of the house since they started working there as maids in June, they said.
The main conspirator behind the robbery-cum-murder was identified as Sachit Saxena, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly. He is a nephew of the former house help who worked in the house two years ago, police said.
According to police, the accused along with his associates -- Prashant Basista, Aniket Jha, Ramesh and Dhananjay Gulia -- hatched a conspiracy to rob the place based on inside information of a presence of large amount of cash in the house and later executed their plan on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
They had already decided to eliminate any resistance from the house occupants if it occurred during the crime, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Esha Pandey said the accused disclosed during questioning that they had conducted several recce over the last one month and arranged chloroform, tape, cutter, punch, rope, masks, and other necessary items for carrying their plan.
To conceal their identity, they used VoIP instead of normal phone calls and did not carry their mobile phones at the time of the incident. As per the plan, they had designated their name as numeric 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, police said.
Narrating the sequence of incident, the accused revealed that on the day of the crime, all of them assembled outside the place around 10 pm. They waited for three-and-a-half hours inside the park, the officer said.
Around 1.30 am, four of them entered the house from the back door after scaling the front wall.
"While they entered the room, Mina Rai woke up and all the accused overpowered her, pinned her mouth with chloroform, tied her hands and legs with the help of a rope and taped her mouth with silver tape. While they were committing the robbery in the drawing room, the other maid woke up. As she tried to scream, she was also overpowered and then smothered with a pillow," Pandey said.
After the incident, all of them escaped along with the cash worth approximately Rs 90 lakh (including foreign currency) in two bags, police said.
Police received a PCR call at 9.45 am on Monday regarding two maids lying unconscious in a house at Jangpura Extension.
The suspects were identified with the help of CCTV footage in which all the accused were seen at the place. The route of the suspect was chalked out through close examination of multiple CCTV footage and in another CCTV video, they were found riding a motorcycle after the incident, the senior police officer said.
The owner of the bike -- accused Sachit Saxena -- was later apprehended using technical analysis and based on his disclosure, his four accomplices were also arrested from one of their hideouts while they were planning to flee separately to various parts of India after distributing the stolen money among themselves.
Police said articles used in the offence along with seven mobile phones of the accused, their clothes and bags have been recovered.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
