New Delhi: Priti Kumar’s murder is a chilling reminder of the gruesome killing of Dr Yogesh Chander Paul, a 63-year-old general physician, who also used to live in Jangpura, in May 2024.The doctor’s body, with hands tied, was found in his kitchen. The house was ransacked and looted while his wife, a Delhi govt doctor, was away at work.It wasn’t just a violent burglary, but a shocking tale of betrayal and conspiracy hatched by Basanti (60), Paul’s trusted domestic worker of 24 years. Capitalising on unfettered access to the house and intimate knowledge of the family’s daily routine, Basanti leaked vital information to a gang that used to target senior citizens in affluent colonies.On the afternoon of May 10, 2024, intruders overpowered Paul inside his residence, beat him up severely, gagged him and bound him to a wooden chair. They dragged the chair, with the doctor strapped to it, into the kitchen. There, they bludgeoned him on the head with a heavy object before strangling him with a dog leash. They looted the house and fled, leaving his body hidden in the kitchen.The murder sparked widespread public outrage across Delhi — exposing glaring gaps in domestic help verification and safety protocols for senior citizens — and prompted a probe and manhunt spanning thousands of kilometres across the country.Police units worked meticulously to track the suspects to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and along the porous India-Nepal border.Basanti was first arrested along with her brother Akash Joshi and Himanshu, a priest at Haridwar’s Birla Ghat, who facilitated logistics of the gang members. Key handler Vishnuswaroop Shahi alias Doctor, who carried a Rs 50,000 reward, was picked up from a bus headed toward Banbasa near the Indo-Nepal border. Neeraj (30) from Assam and Prakash Chandra (42) from Nepal were nabbed near Dudhwa National Park. Police also rounded up Santosh and Suraj for aiding and harbouring the assailants.The police operation reached its climax last Oct when a top member of the gang, Bhim Mahabahadur Jora (39), was cornered near Astha Kunj Park in southeast Delhi. Jora, who carried a Rs 1-lakh reward, fired at cops. He was critically wounded in retaliatory firing and died at AIIMS Trauma Centre.
