Servant held for killing elderly woman

NEW DELHI - A 19-year-old domestic servant was arrested in Delhi Friday on charges of murdering an 82-year-old woman at her rented house a day before, police said.

Roshan Bodhra, from Jharkhand’s Khunti district, attacked Santosh Pahwa with a wooden ‘thapi’ used for washing clothes Thursday night at her Kirti Nagar residence, a police official said.

Bodhra was planning to run away to his native place when he was arrested from the Old Delhi Railway Station, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) V. Renganathan said.

“He was waiting there to catch the train around 6 a.m. today (Friday),” he said.

“We managed to track him through the servant verification process. The timely verification and proper maintenance of record of the servant at the police station came as a great help in solving the case within hours,” he said.

Dinkar Kalra, 27, Santosh Pahwa’s grandson, who has been staying with her for the past two and a half years, found her murdered near the bathroom.

“He (Kalra) tried to contact Pahwa on phone, but when she did not respond, he went, removed the grill of a window with the help of his friend and entered the house. He found his grandmother lying in a pool of blood on the floor near the bathroom,” Renganathan said.

According to Kalra, the servant was not in the house and almirah was found ransacked.

Kalra told police that the verification of the servant was done by the police.