Missed dog walk, zero outgoing calls and internet search history: How police solved Delhi double murder

The brothers raised suspicion on one Harshit, 21, a neighbour and an old family friend, who they asked to take care of the house and shop in their absence. Initially, police had nothing concrete in terms of material evidence to implicate Harshit. However, CCTV footage showing a missed dog walk, call detail record (CDR) examination of Vimla’s phone showing 15-20 outgoing calls to no calls, and an internet search history on instruments to detect gold helped police.

A senior police officer said that Shashank ran a shop selling puja items in Chandni Chowk. “Before leaving for the trip, they assigned the responsibility of their shop as well as the house to Harshit, who lives two houses away,” an officer said. While murder weapon remained missing, police started questioning neighbours, from whom it surfaced that Dolly used to go for a morning walk with her pet dog every day. “On scanning CCTVs, it emerged that she did not come out of her house on August 14,” said the officer.

Police said a few neighbours pointed out that Dolly was last seen with Harshit on the evening of August 13 when she had gone to a nearby temple.

CDR of Vimla’s phone was also analysed and it was revealed that she used to call Dolly around 15-20 times a day for her daily needs as she was bedridden, but there was no call from 9 pm onwards on August 13. “We seized Harshit’s phone and from his search history, we saw that he had searched about techniques and instruments to detect gold and also searched for shops used to exchange gold against cash. CCTV footage also showed Harshit carrying something in his hand on August 14,” another officer added.

Then DCP (Northeast) Sanjay Sain had said that on sustained interrogation, Harshit broke down and revealed that he had borrowed Rs 5 lakh from Shashank on interest but could not return it back in time. “As he was aware of Shashank and Sarthak’s trip, he hatched a plan to murder the women and rob valuable items, for which he bought a knife and kept it in his scooter,” the officer said, adding that Harshit was aware that the front CCTV of the house was non-functional.

On August 13, Harshit accompanied Dolly to a temple and after returning, allegedly killed her by smothering her face with a pillow and stabbing her. “He went to the first floor, killed Vimla and locked the pet dog. He ransacked the house,” the DCP had said.

Officers said that a day after the murder, realising about CCTV installed on the house’s roof, Harshit came and snapped its connection before leaving.