Sixty-four-year-old Rohit Kumar Alagh, fondly called Peter, was brutally murdered in his S block residence in the early hours of 25th November 2024. The incident left colony residents in a state of shock. This was the second such incident in three months, coming on the back of the murder of a house help of an E block resident in September.
The police deserve to be complimented for solving the case within a few days, with extensive use of CCTV cameras, phone records and interrogation of people who the criminal encountered. DCP Ankit Chauhan personally led the investigation and arrested the criminal by 28th November.
The crime was committed by 25-year-old Abhay Sikarwar, who worked as a house help around five years ago. (media reports https://shorturl.at/h0MlV and https://shorturl.at/NGo6d). He was desperate, in debt, and decided to commit a robbery, choosing Peter because immediate suspicion would not fall on someone who worked there many years ago, and his assessment that Peter was a ‘wealthy’ target. He did a reconnaissance of the area for a few days before finally making his move on 24th night. It appears that he had no intentions beyond committing the robbery. Unfortunately, Peter woke up and took the intruder on. In the scuffle, Sikarwar became desperate and stabbed Peter to death with a knife. It is unfortunate that some media reports spoke of a “pre-meditated murder” with property dispute and personal rivalry as the motive, which were baseless rumors picked up from loose conversations.
Peter is survived by his two sons Tushar and Reuksh, his ex-wife Anu, his sister Arica and brother Anil.
Peter was known as a ‘jolly good fellow’ by all those in the colony who knew him. He was a frequent visitor to the Club’s bar and would enjoy the evening with his core group of friends, often breaking into singing and dancing on the floor. As per Aradhana Vikram Singh, a fellow resident, who knew him for fifty years and was close to him, Peter was ready to help anyone who had a problem. He never had any confrontations, and no one had anything against him.
It was heartwarming to see that, as this tragedy unfolded, some of the colony residents took charge to support the grieving family and to manage the police and media. Besides his core group of colony friends Aradhana, Rita Shah and Tony (Rajesh) Bhardwaj, immense support came from Sonali Chopra, a high court lawyer and S block resident, who went out of her way to deal patiently and assertively with the police and media, insulating the grieving family from an aggressive line of investigation, interrogation.
Besides dealing with the gloom of this tragedy, there are clear lessons in prevention.
Some of them are for the colony management to consider. Why, for example, is there an unmanned boom barrier at the end of S block service lane which can be easily used by someone to enter or exit the colony? This was the access and exit route of the criminal in this case. Secondly, how can we prevent such a situation through organized patrolling and central real time surveillance using CCTV cameras with manned monitors in an office? We have no such arrangement at present.
For the individuals, learning that emerged is to make access as difficult as possible. This means latching the bedroom from inside in addition to locking the main gate and the entry door into the house. Another one is to have valuables inside a safe which may be a deterrent for ex-house helps who are planning a theft or robbery.
We wish Peter’s family courage and fortitude to deal with the untimely loss of Peter.
