Tutor,two others held for robbing 63-year-old

Three persons,including a physically challenged tutor,were arrested on Tuesday for beating up and robbing Lalita Devi (63) when she was alone at her house in Sukhdev Vihar,police said. The accused have been identified as the tutor Om Prakash (34),Subhash (22) and Sonu Singh (22).

According to police,Subhash and Sonu entered Lalita Devi’s house,with a minor boy,posing as telephone mechanics. Prakash,the tuition teacher of Devi’s grandchildren,provided information about the family — the time when she would be alone at home,names of the family members and about a non-functional telephone line.

“Devi spoke to the accused through a window and let them in after they told her they were telephone mechanics and gave further details. A complaint about the non-functional phone had been lodged with the MTNL by the family,” said a senior police officer.

According to police,the accused told Devi they had to deliver some documents for her son,who is a lawyer,and needed her to sign a receipt. They took her signature and pretended to leave,but said they had forgotten some documents behind. On this pretext they entered the bedroom and attacked her.

“One of them pinned her down on the bed,while the other demanded information about the cash and jewellery in the house,” the officer said.

During investigation,Devi told police she had asked the accused to call her husband and son as she wanted to cross check if they had asked for any telephone repairs. The accused had used their mobile phone to make the calls and the phone in the house was not working,she told police.

“A call was made to victim’s husband 1.07 pm from an unknown number,it was a missed call. Further analysis of the caller’s number revealed that two calls had been made to it from two different landline numbers,” the officer said.

Addresses on the telephone numbers led the police to Subhash,who was arrested later. Sonu and Prakash were arrested after Subhash’s interrogation,police said.