She gave him Rs 45,000 when he was in need—He came back to kill: How garment shop helper butchered employer, son in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar home

NEW DELHI: A woman and her 14-year-old son were murdered at their south Delhi home on Wednesday evening, allegedly by a man who had taken a Rs 45,000 advance from her and stopped returning calls after falling out over repayment, police said. The suspect, identified as Mukesh, was arrested hours later by police in Uttar Pradesh while trying to flee by train. Police believe Ruchika Sewani, 40, and her son Krish were killed with a sharp object after she confronted the accused over the money.

Her husband Kuldeep, who owns a garment shop in Lajpat Nagar, had given Mukesh the amount as an advance after he claimed he was in financial distress. But Mukesh allegedly stopped reporting to work and avoided her calls. “He agreed to return the money and a phone, but flew into a rage after being scolded by a woman,” a senior officer said, citing Mukesh’s initial statement. The killings were discovered late on Wednesday night after repeated calls by Kuldeep to his wife went unanswered. He then sent a staffer from his shop to check on the family. The worker found bloodstains near the gate and called Kuldeep, who alerted police. Police broke open the gate to the ground-floor flat and found Ruchika dead in one room and her son in the bathroom, both with deep neck injuries.

Neighbours said they had heard no noise due to the air conditioning running in the house. CCTV footage showed the accused leaving the building soon after the time of the killings, which reportedly took place between 7 and 7:30pm, shortly after Ruchika returned home from the shop. Her son is believed to have come in from cricket coaching minutes later and tried to intervene, but was also attacked and chased into the bathroom. An inter-state alert was issued for the suspect and he was caught at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction railway station in Uttar Pradesh. Police are still looking for the murder weapon and are investigating whether the suspect had tampered with CCTV equipment before entering the home. A case of murder has been registered.