Hyderabad murder: Domestic helps tortured woman for locker code, hit her with cooker; bathed after killing & fled

HYDERABAD: It was a chilling case of greed and brutality, as two domestic helps allegedly tortured and killed 50-year-old woman, Renu Agarwal, in a desperate attempt to extract the password to her digital locker, police said on Thursday. The assailants, identified as Harsh and Roushan, fled after the horrifying crime, abandoning their vehicle at Hafeezpet railway station, nearly 8 kilometres away from the scene of the crime.

The gruesome nature of the assault left investigators convinced that the duo's primary motive was to gain access to valuables locked inside Renu's Swan Lake Apartments in Kukatpally on Wednesday.



"The duo attacked her on the head with a pressure cooker multiple times. They stabbed her with a knife and scissors on the throat and hands. They tied her limbs. All this indicates that they were trying to make her say how to gain access to the valuables in the locker. We believe that the victim was not familiar with the passcode of the locker and the duo tortured her to death in a vain attempt to elicit it from her," a senior police official explained.

After the murder, the attackers burgled the flat. "The family members said that about four to five tola gold and about Rs 1 lakh cash might have been stolen," police confirmed. The attackers also stripped Renu of the gold ornaments she was wearing at the time.

In a further display of cold-bloodedness, after the killing, Harsh and Roushan bathed, changed into fresh clothes, and left behind blood-stained garments before locking the main door and fleeing the apartment on the scooty of Roushan's employer, carrying a single bag.

CCTV footage played a crucial role in tracing their movements. It revealed that the duo left the apartment at around 5.10 pm. Their trail continued through Moosapet, IDL Lake Road, and Kaithlapur before police discovered the abandoned vehicle at Hafeezpet station.

Authorities said that between 6 pm and 11 pm on Wednesday, only three trains stopped at the station besides MMTS services, which may have been used by the fugitives.

To crack the case, five special police teams have been formed to track the offenders. One of the teams visited the Hehal area on Ratu Road in Ranchi, where both accused hail from. Investigators also contacted Shankar, a Kolkata-based manpower agent who had sent Harsh and Roushan for employment in different households at the Swan Lake apartment complex. "The duo did not have any criminal records as per his knowledge," police said.

Renu's family, originally from Kolkata, had been residing in Hyderabad for the past 15 years. On the day of the incident, her husband Rakesh Agarwal and son Subham were in their steel shop in Fateh Nagar. Alarmed when Renu did not respond to phone calls, they rushed home at around 6.45 pm. Unable to access the locked apartment, they enlisted the help of a plumber. He entered the flat via the balcony and found Renu lying dead in the hallway with severe bleeding injuries.

"After the postmortem, the body was handed over to the family on Thursday morning. Our five special teams are trying to locate the accused," Kukatpally ACP E Ravi Kiran Reddy said.